That the river is dying is clearly evident from its stench. The highly toxic waters release a 'gas' that starts irritating the nostrils and throat as soon as humans breathe it. Its foul odors can be smelled from as far away as half a kilometre.

"Sometimes we are unable to sit in our office due to the unbearable stench from the river water," said an official at the Sadarghat river port. As the day rolls into the afternoon the heat of the sun turns the stench even fouler, making the 'pitch black' Buriganga water intolerable, he said.

Soon after the floodwater receded and the river wore its lean period look, the pollution instantly increased due to a lack of dispersion. Millions of cubic metres of toxic waste from the Hazaribagh tanneries and thousands of other industries, topped with a huge volume of untreated sewage from the city, now remain almost stagnant within the river water. The situation is set to continue until a new flow of water rushes in from the upstream, beginning in perhaps another two months.

In the meantime, people living along the river are the worst victims of the pollution, which they say is worse than anything they've seen in previous years. Thousands of water transport workers, working on the passenger and cargo vessels in Sadraghat, are forced to bring water from the river Meghna and Dhaleswari for washing. Unable to take a bath or wash clothes for days, many of them have even begun to suffer from various diseases.

"We can not use the water of the Buriganga for bathing, washing or cooking," said Mohammad Uzzal, an employee of a launch. "For cooking, we use the water collected from faraway places in our water tank," said Mohammad Jalil, a launch cook.

Farid, a ticket collector of MV Mashiron Khan-1, said that even for washing the floor of the vessels they have to bring water from relatively less polluted rivers such as the Meghna near Chandpur.

"Sometimes, when we require more water while anchored at the terminal, we are forced to buy tap water at a high price," said a launch operator. "If we wash the vessel with this water passengers complain of a bad smell," he said.

At least two private companies supply 'pure water' to the launches in the Sadarghat, charging about Tk 150 for filling a 400-liter capacity water reservoir.

The scenario is even bleaker in the villages along the river, in the upstream of the Buriganga. Hundreds of thousands of families living in Zinzira, Kholamora, Kamrangirchar, Jhaochar, Modhyerchar, Wasspur, Basila and Looterchar face a severe water crisis for at least six months a year. Dependent on the river for generations, this population has been cut off from using the river water for over ten years. Although almost every household has a tube-well, ninety percent of them become dry during the lean period. Housewives are even forced to travel miles for washing and collecting water.

"There are people, particularly migrant day labourers, who are badly suffering as they are unable to wash their clothes or take a bath for days," said Lakhan, a former fisherman from Basila.

Pollution in the river has also rendered totally barren hundreds of acres agricultural land and also destroyed the river water's ecosystem. Once famous for its variety of local fishes, the Buriganga now has virtually no aquatic life.

There are at least 200 sources from which polluted water pours into the river Buriganga, chief among them sewage waste from the tanneries at Rayer Bazar. The government now has a plan to relocate the Hazaribagh tanneries to Savar with effluent treatment plants.

A top BIWTA official said that all the feeder rivers in the upstream, such as the Jamuna and the Brahmaputra, remain cut off during most of the year due to siltation in confluent areas.

"The river Buriganga becomes almost stagnant as the water flow from upstream is almost totally cut off in the lean period," he said.