III. The Way Forward

Government officials widely agree that building a central effluent treatment plant at the Savar site is the most important step towards resolving the Hazaribagh issue.[200] As noted, government officials disagree as to when the Savar CETP will be complete, although the minister of industries told Bangladeshi media that it will be finished by June 2013.[201]

But the issues identified in this report cannot be solved by a technical fix. A CETP in Savar is an altogether insufficient step to address the health and human rights issues identified in this report, including poor occupational health and safety conditions, hazardous child labor, and Hazaribagh’s existing industrial pollution.

There is also a very real possibility that relocating Hazaribagh tanneries will increase the rate of environmental pollution in Savar. Media reports already suggest that Savar is suffering from unplanned growth of industries and a lack of enforcement of environmental laws. One media article in 2012 noted:

Over recent years, Savar is experiencing immense pressure of new industrial, commercial and residential establishments…. Besides garments and other industries, Savar accommodates the highest number of conventional brick fields emitting black smoke into the air while the export processing zone and other localised industries still discharge waste water into the nearby waterbodies and low lands.[202]

The article notes that many industries in Savar do not have effluent treatment plants, or those that do turn them off to save on costs. In this regard, the effectiveness of the planned central effluent treatment plant for the Savar leather estate will require that it be actually used, which in turn requires regular and effective monitoring.[203]

Far more important than a CETP is the rigorous application of Bangladeshi law to the tanneries in Hazaribagh (and, following relocation, in Savar). Human Rights Watch recommends the following steps.

Immediate Regulation of Tannery Pollution

The Department of Environment’s de facto policy to suspend environmental monitoring and enforcement until after relocation is not justified. Regardless of the progress of the Savar CETP, it is imperative that the department monitor air, soil, and water in Hazaribagh and issue fines or other penalties to polluting tanneries that exceed national standards.

Even in the absence of effluent treatment, numerous technical studies have detailed how variations of the conventional tanning process can reduce—often by significant amounts— the pollution load from the tanning process. By way of example, one leather technologist explained that a minimal price difference was responsible for tanneries not reducing the pollutants generated by conventional de-liming operations. He explained:

You will reduce hazardous gases by 80 percent if you do ammonia-free de-liming. It’s better to use boric acid, then you don’t have to use ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, and metabisulfite. If we leather technologists try to make the tannery owner understand, he won’t agree because the price of the three chemicals will be lower than the boric acid. The change would cost maybe 1 taka ($0.01) more per square foot of hide.[204]

There are other well-documented examples of alternative processes and technologies proven to reduce tannery pollution loads.[205] The United Nations Industrial Development Organization estimates that using such alternative measures could reduce the pollution load by significant amounts: COD and BOD by more than 30 percent, sulfides by 80-90 percent, ammonia nitrogen by 80 percent, chlorides by 70 percent, sulfates by 65 percent and chromium by up to 90 percent.[206] Since February 2009, the European Union has implemented a project with some tanneries in Hazaribagh to pilot various ways to reduce waste.[207]

However, without enforcement of environmental laws by the Bangladeshi government, there is no incentive for tanneries to adopt such alternative processes and technologies throughout Hazaribagh tanneries. Tanneries are unlikely to use less polluting options where the cost of the alternative process may be higher, even fractionally so.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch, a Department of Environment official admitted that enforcement of environmental laws could effectively minimize tannery pollution.

If we go for enforcement they will have to pay for their pollution, then they will see some incentive to go for waste minimization of chemicals. Otherwise they will use chemicals lavishly.[208]

Immediate Regulation of Working Conditions in Tanneries

There is no justification for not rigorously enforcing the Labour Act in Hazaribagh tanneries. The Inspection Department should expand monitoring of worker health and safety conditions in the tanneries, including through unannounced inspections. Labor inspectors who find inadequate treatment of effluent, violations of worker health and safety provisions, denial of sick leave and compensation to injured and sick workers, and hazardous child labor must charge those violations as offences in the Labour Courts, which they should petition to fine or imprison those responsible for infringing the law.

The system of factory inspections needs a general overhaul before it can reliably ensure full compliance by employers with the Labour Act. Priorities for this overhaul include: filling existing vacancies for inspectors and assistant inspectors; strengthening penalties in the Labour Act; and ensuring that many of the inspections are done without notice. It is also necessary to significantly increase the number of staff positions and resources (including for salaries) available to the Ministry of Labour’s Inspection Department to enable it to conduct more regular in-field assessments.

Due Diligence by Buyers

Human Rights Watch has not focused its research on working conditions in specific tanneries, nor on particular international companies that may purchase leather from those tanneries. Given that there are some 150 tanneries in Hazaribagh, and that each tannery may have contracts with several buyers (that vary by tannery and over time), Human Rights Watch believes that systemic action across the Hazaribagh leather tanneries offers the best hope for remedying the health and human rights conditions identified in this report.

Responsibility for addressing the human rights violations identified in this report lies ultimately with the Bangladeshi government.

However, companies that buy leather produced in Hazaribagh should be aware that businesses of all types have a responsibility to respect human rights, including workers’ rights.[209] As elaborated in the “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework (the UN Framework) and the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” (the Guiding Principles) for their implementation, which the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed in 2008 and 2011 (respectively), businesses should respect all human rights, avoid complicity in abuses, and cooperate in their remediation if they occur.[210]

The UN Framework and Guiding Principles outline basic steps that businesses should adopt consistent with their human rights responsibilities. This includes undertaking adequate due diligence steps that encompass risk assessments and monitoring, in order to identify and prevent, or effectively mitigate, human rights problems.[211] Of particular relevance to international firms who buy from tanneries in Bangladesh, the Guiding Principles state that human rights due diligence “should cover adverse human rights impacts that the business enterprise may cause or contribute to through its own activities, or which may be directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships.”[212]

In the case of Hazaribagh tanneries, properly conducted due-diligence reviews are clearly relevant in ensuring that a company is not implicated (through its supplier relationships) in unregulated pollution, violations of occupational health and safety laws, and hazardous child labor. Although not specified in the Guiding Principles, it is a best practice among companies, as well as in multi-stakeholder initiatives designed to address business and human rights problems, to require independent third-party audits.

Any foreign or national company sourcing leather from Hazaribagh should urgently examine their supply chains to ensure that violations of Bangladeshi and international law documented in this report are not present in supplier tanneries or those tanneries that process all or part of the leather from supplier tanneries on a “job work” basis.

Cleaning Up Hazaribagh

After eventually relocating the tanneries, the government intends to develop Hazaribagh as a residential area for middle-income housing. A green belt is proposed to protect the embankment, with some areas developed as commercial centers and markets.[213] Despite announcing such plans, the government has yet to recognize the need to clean up the area.

When Human Rights Watch met with the minister of parliament representing Hazaribagh constituency, he explained that, in his opinion, there was no need for environmental remediation. He said:

I don’t find the logic [in the need for remediation] because the leather is treated with chemicals and salt in water and it is washed away into the Buriganga. The drains are very deep. I don’t find it possible for this [industry] to pollute the land.[214]

However, as noted above, a detailed study of Hazaribagh in 2008 found that the main risk to human health from Hazaribagh’s contamination originates with the high concentrations of chromium, mineral oils, and extractable organohalogen compounds detected in the soil.[215] Numerous other studies have confirmed the extreme environmental contamination of Hazaribagh soils.[216]

The 2008 study recommended that remediation should begin with excavating and removing contaminated matter in surface ponds, large dumps of tannery waste, and the main drainage canals. There is also a need, where topsoil is polluted beyond the risk-based threshold values, to remove topsoil and replace it with clean soil. This would significantly reduce the amount of pollution spreading to deeper soil layers. Active monitoring for groundwater contamination is also needed on an ongoing basis.[217]