Rayer Bazar's once famous Pal Para potter community is almost inactive today, but pottery from surrounding areas is still brought here by boat and stacked for later resale.

Close to the stacks of rubbish piled up on the Rayer Bazar embankment, makeshift factories produce vermicelli without any concerns for health standards.

The river dries out into open fields in the dry season, which be come easy prey for land grabbers who have already begun to advertise the land for sale as housing plots.

Washermen continue their age-old use of the river, washing and drying clothes by the riverside.

Despite the ban on polythene use, plastic bags continue to pile up for recycling at a facility along the Rayer Bazar embankment.

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Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain

(C) The Daily Star, 2003.