In Bangladesh, Tanneries in Trouble

A two-decade push by Bangladesh to reform its leather tanning industry was supposed to clean up pollution and end worker exploitation. So far, it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. We interview Md. Sadat S. Shibli about the industries progress and shortcomings. Read the full blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/05/27/in-bangladesh-tanneries-in-trouble/

Transcript

John Rieger (00:00):

Welcome to InAsia. I'm John Rieger.

Tracie Yang (00:03):

And I'm Tracie Yang.

John Rieger (00:03):

Our story this week might better be called a saga. It's the saga of Bangladesh's leather sector, one of the country's oldest industries, and a vital source of national export earnings.

Tracie Yang (00:13):

At the heart of the industry is leather tanning. It's dirty, laborious, and polluting, things that export customers have started to worry about. So, after a two-decade campaign, the Bangladesh government completed the monumental task of moving the country's tanneries from a polluted industrial site in Dhaka to a new manufacturing district in Savar. Hopes were high for a fresh start.

John Rieger (00:38):

And that's where we take up the tale. Here with us now to talk about Bangladesh's troubled tanneries is Sadat Shibli, Director of Programs for the Asia Foundation in Bangladesh. He joins us from Dhaka via the internet, something we're all getting used to these days. Shibli, welcome. Can you hear us okay?

Sadat Shibli  (00:54):

Yeah. Hi, John. Hi, Tracie. It's a pleasure to be here with you today.

John Rieger (00:58):

So, Shibli, why did those tanneries have to move?

Sadat Shibli  (01:02):

During the early '60s, the leather sector is blooming in Hazaribag, Dhaka. And the untreated waters and the chemicals were dumped in the river Buriganga, making it severely polluted.

John Rieger (01:13):

And this river was the drinking water source.

Sadat Shibli  (01:15):

No, not the drinking water, but it's a groundwater source. But it became severely polluted, and it killed almost all the aquatic lifeforms there. And it started spreading diseases among the workers, and the communities. Those who are living around the river, and surrounding the tannery industries.

Sadat Shibli  (01:34):

So at that time, they all came up with a plan to relocate the industry, to move it outside Dhaka. Then there is another reason that I said that. To raise the standard of the manufacturers of the tanneries, and making the industry compatible for European and US markets. So these are the basically two main reasons why the tanneries have to move from Dhaka.

Tracie Yang (02:01):

Bangladesh has been criticized in the past for its working conditions, particularly after the notorious Rana Plaza collapse that killed more than 1100 garment workers in 2013. What's it like to be a worker in one of these tanneries?

Sadat Shibli  (02:18):

Being a tannery worker in Bangladesh is pretty hard now. So, if you are a tannery worker, you are probably going to work in an unsafe working environment, and a exploitive environment, as well. Most of the workers, and many of the supervisors, do not have any knowledge about occupational safety and health in their workplace. They do not have access to personal protective equipment, PPE, because the owners are supposed to provide this to the workers, but most of the owners do not do that.

Sadat Shibli  (02:49):

At the same time, there are almost 200 types of chemicals are being used in the tanneries, and almost all of them are harmful. So there are a lot of accidents happening where, due to these chemicals, burns and other sort of inhalation. And also, another issue is that most of the workers do not have job agreements or contracts, so they can easily be terminated from their jobs.

John Rieger (03:14):

So the picture you paint is one of a highly polluting industry, with workers that are both exploited and endangered on the job. And this was before the move. And these problems were also getting to be bad for business, right? How was the move supposed to fix things?

Sadat Shibli  (03:30):

Well, of course it is bad for the business. There is a global slogan now that no compliant, no business. You can't get into European and US markets without getting LWG certification provided by the Leather Working Group. So, without the LWG certification, leather cannot be exported to European and US markets. So, business was really bad.

Sadat Shibli  (03:53):

This move was trying to make the industry compliant so that export can increase, basically. So, for all the tannery industries, there will be a central effluent treatment plant. We call it CTP. And also, the move was to ensure that acceptable working conditions were also introduced for the workers.

John Rieger (04:14):

So there was a lot of new pollution control equipment, and there were going to be new labor standards and practices in the factories. How has that worked out so far?

Sadat Shibli  (04:23):

Well, unfortunately, it hasn't worked out at all. The problem was the design of the industrial estate was not complete at that time. The CTP that was installed, it was supposed to treat 30,000 cubic meters of liquid effluence daily. But during the peak season, the amount of effluent rises up to 50,000 cubic meters. And so it overflows, so the CTP cannot basically treat all the liquids that come out.

Sadat Shibli  (04:51):

So what happened is that untreated water then were flushed to the adjacent river, Dhaleswari, and it started polluting the river again. So, we relocated the whole industry to save the river Buriganga there, but it was relocated to Savar, and it just started polluting another river.

Sadat Shibli  (05:10):

So here, the problem is that by the bank of the rivers there are agricultural lands. The water got so much polluted that they cannot irrigate through the river water. So, it didn't help at all.

John Rieger (05:23):

It sounds like a little bit of a train wreck, in fact.

Sadat Shibli  (05:25):

Yeah. And also, the other environmental checkups that were supposed to be installed, like the water treatment plant, sludge treatment plants, they were not installed yet. Till now, they were not installed. They have dug up open pits, and they just dump the solid waste there.

Sadat Shibli  (05:42):

Even we have heard when we were talking with some of the community members, we have heard that people do not want to marry their sons in these villages because of the smell and everything. So there was a social impact, as well.

Tracie Yang (05:54):

So with the continued pollution and problems facing workers in the community around the industrial tanneries, how has the Asia Foundation gotten involved?

Sadat Shibli  (06:08):

The Asia Foundation in Bangladesh is now implementing a program that is known as promoting decent work, and acceptable working condition in the tanneries in Bangladesh. Through the program, what we are trying to do is, we are trying to address two specific points. One is to increase the knowledge of the workers and the supervisors on occupational health and safety issues, labor rights, and other labor issues.

Sadat Shibli  (06:37):

The other component is where we are trying to build a platform where we want all the parties who are involved in the tannery industry to come together to discuss about the problems that are being faced by all the sectors. As a development partner in this sector, we are not only focusing on the workers' issues, but we are also trying to understand what are the limitations and the challenges of the owners, as well.

Tracie Yang (07:04):

What's your utopian vision for Bangladesh's tanning industry?

Sadat Shibli  (07:09):

Wow, that's a very good question, but I would say a difficult question to answer, basically. For the workers, I would say decent work and acceptable working conditions. That is number one. And tanneries will be compliant, free of pollutions, LWG certifications, like I said earlier, are ensured for all the tanneries. And with an export market to European and US markets be ensured at the utopian future of Bangladesh tannery industry.

Tracie Yang (07:44):

Sadat Shibli, thank you for joining us.

Sadat Shibli  (07:47):

Thank you. I was really pleased to join, and it was really nice talking to you guys. Thank you.

John Rieger (07:54):

And that's all for this edition of InAsia. For more on this subject, please take a look at Shibli's fascinating essay about Bangladesh's troubled tanneries in this edition of the InAsia blog. Until next time, I'm John Rieger.

Sadat Shibli  (08:05):

And I'm Traci Yang.

John Rieger (08:06):

Thanks for listening.