Bangladesh bans polythene bags, promotes jute
Date: 28-Dec-01
Country: BANGLADESH
Polythene shopping bags threatened to choke the flood-prone country's drainage system, with reports of a layer of polythene on the bed of the Buriganga River in Dhaka, the officials said.
The layer of polythene is reported to be hampering dredging of the river, which flows through the city of 10 million people.
"The Buriganga has lost its navigability and it's water has become poisonous due to dumping of tonnes of polythene bags on its bed," said environment minister Shahjahan Siraj.
Polythene bags obstructed the low-lying city's sewerage system and filled canals and lakes, he added.
The ban will shut hundreds of small factories making polythene bags, but hundreds of people yesterdayheld a rally hailing the government ban.
"I know only 4,000 people may lose their jobs due to the ban. (But) in fact, it will create thousands of jobs in the jute and other sectors to benefit the country's economy as well as the environment," Siraj told the rally.
Jute exports were once Bangladesh's major foreign exchange earner but the sector has lost out to artificial packaging in recent years.
"The glory of jute could now be revived again with its countrywide use and large-scale exports to the countries in the Europe and the United States where a campaign against synthetics is going on," Siraj said.
Jute ministry officials said local jute mills had stepped up production of bags because of the impending ban, but they warned jute bags were more expensive than polythene ones.
Regularly hit by floods during the mid-year monsoon season, Bangladesh's worst inundation in 1998 devastated two-thirds of the country, including Dhaka, and killed over 3,000 people.
Government estimates put the cost of the flood, including lost production, at $4.3 billion with more than two million tonnes of rice destroyed.