The three-year research project titled 'Application of innovative technologies for the reclamation and environmental improvement of derelict urban areas in Dhaka City' was launched in January this year.

Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (Kuet) in collaboration with Spain-based Cluster Association of Environment Industry of the Basque Country (ACLIMA) and Belgium-based Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) is implementing the project.

The European Commission under its Asia Pro Eco-²² Programme is funding the project.

This was revealed at a dissemination meeting on the project organised by Kuet at a city hotel yesterday.

Presenting the project outline, Prof Dr Ludo Diels of the Department of Environment and Process Technology of VITO said as most of the industries of the country are unplanned and lack of legislation and anti-pollution control laws, urban lands, waters and air are seriously contaminated by industrial effluents.

He said as most of the industries have no wastewater treatment and disposal facilities and the country has no effective legislation and regulation to control emission of industrial wastewater to the environment, a serious pollution of surface, groundwater and soil in the location and periphery of the industries is taking place.

According to Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) about 16,000 tonnes of waste are being accumulated in the Hazaribagh tannery zone alone and about 12,000 tonnes in Tejgaon industrial area, said Prof Ludo.

He said a total of 25 hectares of land under these two industrial belts has been categorised by the Department of Environment as 'red zone' where the morbidity rate is highest in the world.

Prof Ludo said with the shifting of tannery industries from Hazaribagh to Savar, the dismantling area will be a real brownfield which would need proper investigation of the extent of pollution.

Besides, the study is needed to formulate guidelines for the remediation of the contaminated lands for sustainable development in the area.

Juan Antonio Gascon, project manager of ACLIMA, said the remediation technologies of soils in urban polluted sites will promote land use management, reduce human exposure to toxic pollutants, promote a sustainable urban planning and contribute to quality of life through sustainable development.

Prof Md Rezaul Karim and Prof Quazi Hamidul Bari of Kuet, Prof AM Shafiqul Alam, Prof Abu Jafar Mahmood, Prof Syed Fazle Elahi and Assistant Prof Md Ahsan Habib of Dhaka University, Jalaluddin Mohammad Abdul Hye, deputy executive director of Planning and Development Institute of Water Modelling and Kyaw Sha Ching, executive engineer of Wasa also spoke on the occasion.