Finally the truth has been recognized and has come out in the open. It was repeatedly uttered by stakeholders since its forcible relocation in 2017. The Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser has finally recognized the inevitable truth that the tannery industry sector of the country is destroyed. But this acknowledgment comes at a time when it is taken into the ICU.

The leather industry sector has three parts. The tannery sector produces only leather. The footwear sector produces all kinds of shoes and footwear, and the third one is leather products covering all kinds of leather goods and items. 
So, what happened there in leather sector that creates such a panic situation in this pandemic time? We should go through the scenario of the whole process of relocation activities that have been undertaken by the government agency BSCIC.

Then government in 2001-2005 had decided to relocate the Hazaribagh tannery cluster to Savar with the aim of restoring environment at Hazaribagh. BSCIC is the prime body in public sector with its half a century experience for land development for the newly built-up industries throughout the country. But the work of tanneries and its industrial nature was totally unknown to the whole manpower of this organization. A new concept of CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plant) has been introduced within this new site of Savar tannery estate. Bangladesh with its conventional way of walking for all kinds of industries had no idea of CETP. This CETP-based and environment-friendly industrial estate was a new concept in Bangladesh context.

Since its inception, it took around 15 years to be built-up but it is yet to get its operational and other productive aspect for environment compliances. As a result, our tannery product (leather) is not getting clearance to the international leather market. Even the footwear industries engaged here for shoe export are not allowed to use locally produced finished leather due to non compliances of the tannery cluster to the environment.

We need to have a brief outline of this industrial sub sector, its Hazaribag status, the relocation procedure, present tannery status and the newly built-up CETP-based tannery estate at Savar. 
In old place at Hazaribagh, there were around two hundred tanneries producing almost 220 million square feet leather in various forms like crust, splits, lining and finished leather. And its export earnings crossed one billion US$ at Hazaribagh site before relocation. But continuous pollution to the environment of western part of Dhaka city created a huge outcry among the adjacent inhabitants and environmentalists.

The relocation was made forcibly in 2017 by a verdict of the country’s highest court, which was told that new tannery site at Savar was ready to take the waste load of the tanneries. This was simply misleading information to the honorable court by the public body to ‘show its efficiency’ to the country’s highest authority. After that, within 48 hours the Hazaribagh tanneries had been shut down forcibly by disconnecting all the utility facilities there at the whole tannery cluster of Hazaribagh.

The tanners at Hazaribagh were forcibly driven to relocate their establishment to the newly built-up tannery estate at Savar in 2017. The tannery infrastructure at Hazaribagh was age old and most of its machineries and equipments were 30-40 years old. On disposing time 30% of these essential machineries were cracked down and became unusable. The major operational equipment for wet processing in the tannery were wooden drums which were destroyed by 60% at dislocation.

So, the problems of relocation in a sudden morning, the tanners became depressed over the business link, the stock clearance, the machinery and equipment replacement, construction of new factory building, etc. They lost their moral enthusiasm by such a sudden break-up. At that time they did not get any financial support from the government side except a handy amount of Tk 250 crore as compensation to the whole mass with several installments. At that time they needed at least Tk 4,000 crore for construction of new factory building and procurement of modern machinery and equipment as fixed cost. Another taka one thousand crore they were required to resettle their business as running capital.

The statuesque of newly build-up tannery estate at Savar at that time (2017) was not its optimum position. The main component of the estate i.e. the CETP was not made ready to comply with the tannery production process. Despite that inconvenience the tanners complied with the court and made their tannery relocate to the new site. They established their tanneries and made them ready to run their business but problems arose from the estate management side as they did not make complete the CETP and other facilities for environment compliances. Even today still the CETP as a whole is yet to be ready for environment compliances. And it is the main cause for our tannery products of not getting clearance for international trade.

Let’s have a look at the activities, measures and action plans from the different bodies who were engaged to look after the sectoral mishap. So far, it was noticed that the tanners had never been seen to run after the ministry of industry for their business update. Though this happens due to new tannery site nowadays but it is apparently seen that the tanners are running after the ministry of commerce for enhancing their business promotion. And still there are so many promotional projects undertaken by the ministry of commerce. Today we are delighted to see the Task Force, the coordination cell, the leather policy committee from the ministry of industries. But did they make the tanners to overcome their unpleasant situation of production, production process and productivity? At present, they need environment-friendly tannery production. They need money for factory building and modern machines and equipment.

The corona pandemic in present days makes the world demoralized. But the concerned people are trying to switch on their mobility to survive. Our tanneries are almost away from the international export market since its relocation and it happens due to non compliances and some other ISO or LWG interventions. We need to face the reality, and public bodies are very much needed to be more proactive and accountable regarding this. The tanners are suggested to work united for salvation of their entity.

The writer is a leather industry consultant