Old Dhaka rides on flammable chemicals ahead of Eid-ul-Azha
FAISAL MAHMUD, Dhaka
Highly flammable chemicals, including sodium bisulfite and dimethylamine, are being stored at various residential buildings of old Dhaka ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. These are mainly used in the leather industry for the removal of hair from rawhide.
Leather traders are storing these chemicals as they expect to collect around one crore pieces of rawhide after sacrifice of animals on Eid-ul-Azha. But in doing so they are flouting the governments directive to remove chemical godowns from residential areas.
Sources say that at least 40 drums of chemicals were stored at the ground floor of a building in Khajedewan three days back. Visiting the spot, The Independent found the drums contain dimethylamine, a highly flammable chemical that could trigger a devastating fire any time. It may be mentioned that 80 people were killed in a deadly fire at Chawkbazaar on February 21.
Nazmul Hossain, owner of the building at Khajedewan, is a leather trader and has a tannery in the Hazaribagh area.
Posing as a leather trading agent, this correspondent asked Nazmul about the chemicals stored at his house. He replied that the chemicals would be used to remove hair from rawhide. I have been doing business with all the rawhide from this neighbourhood for many years. I expect to buy around 40,000 hides this year, he said.
Asked why he is storing the chemicals at his house instead of at his tannery in Hazaribagh, the leather trader said that his tannery did not have enough space for storing the drums.
The same situation can be seen almost everywhere in old city areas like Nimtoli, Posta, Armanitola and Bangshal. Since the Chawkbazaar tragedy that took place some six months ago, very few chemical godowns have actually been shifted from the residential areas of the capital till date. This is direct violation of the governments directive to shift all such godowns from the residential neighbourhood.
After the Chawkbazaar tragedy, a taskforce, comprising members of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD), RAB, police and the district administration, set up 86 mobile courts in different parts of Dhaka from February 28. The task force cut off utility services of at least 76 godowns and factories in different parts of old Dhaka and imposed fines on those. Some of those godowns and factories were also given deadlines for relocation.
However, none of those godowns shifted their respective locations, even though mobile courts set a deadline of seven days on several occasions. This correspondent took part in several of those drives and found that the godowns were never shifted within the deadline. Most of the godown owners got away by paying fines. Even their utility lines were later restored.
According to FSCD data, 14 chemical godowns have been shifted since February this year. But shifting has taken place only from one residential area to another. For instance, the godown of Rita Chemical was shifted from Armanitola to Lalbagh, another densely populated residential area, and the godown of Plasticolor was shifted from one house at Kayettuli to another house in the same locality.
FSCD officials have admitted to The Independent that they did not have any idea about the progress of the relocation of the chemical godowns. They last conducted drives in that area in late March and do not know the current situation.
FSCD director (warehouse and maintenance) Lt Col Jillur Rahman said the process of conducting drives against chemical warehouses in the residential quarter of old Dhaka had been stopped as of now. In the last few months, FSCD has no idea about the relocation of chemical godowns. A high-level government committee was formed regarding the relocation of the godowns, but we havent received any directive from the government, he added.
He, however, said that FSCD had stopped providing licences to chemical godowns in the past few months.
Rahman mentioned that they would start conducting another set of drives after Eid. The government set August 25 as the deadline for relocation of all chemical warehouses and factories from old Dhaka. We have that deadline in our mind, he said.
He also said the problem could not be resolved with some drives. The mentality of locals has to be changed. They have to understand that storing of such chemicals in residential buildings put their own life in danger, he added.
Talking with The Independent, Hazi Belayet Hossain, secretary general of the Bangladesh Chemical and Perfumery Merchant Association, said it was not possible to relocate chemical godowns from old Dhaka before the government constructed the chemical village.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at a meeting on March 1 approved a Tk. 79.42-crore project to construct 54 chemical warehouses at Kadamtoli in Shyampur for relocating chemical godowns from old Dhaka. It also cleared the first revision of the BSCIC Chemical Industrial Park Munshiganj Project involving Tk 1,615.73 crore for relocating the chemical godowns of old Dhaka to an environment-friendly place in Munshiganj.
Hossain said completion of those projects would help the situation. Its not possible to change the situation overnight. I have been deaaling with chemicals in old Dhaka for the last five decades. Relocating at some new place will not be easy for me, he added.
