International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.16, 141-160
141
Review Article Open Access
Status and Impacts of Industrial Pollution on the Karnafully River in Bangladesh:
A Review
Md. Simul Bhuyan
, Md. Shafiqul Islam
Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Corresponding email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No. 16 doi
Received: 12 Apr., 2017
Accepted: 9 May, 2017
Published: 11 May, 2017
Copyright © 2017
Bhuyan and Islam, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Bhuyan S., and Islam S., 2017, Status and impacts of industrial pollution on the Karnafully River in Bangladesh: a review, International Journal of Marine
Science, 7(16): 141-160 (doi
Abstract
Rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization in Bangladesh has been coupled with increasing environmental
pollution. The coastal and estuarine ecosystems of the country are now facing increasing pollution pressures because of the elevated
level of waste discharges from various sources. Major sources of pollution include domestic sewage, industrial waste, commercial
waste, agricultural waste, institutional waste, street sweepings, construction debris, mining activities and sanitation residues etc. In
this review, status and effect of solid waste pollution, heavy metal pollution, organochlorine pesticides pollution and oil pollution
along with the Karnafully River Estuary is assessed by a comprehensive review, recorded by researchers especially on water,
sediment and aquatic biota. Different study show that metal concentrations in estuarine water relatively higher due to rapid
acceleration of industrial sector. Metal concentrations is higher in fish than water and sediment. Elevated level of trace metals is
highly detrimental for fish and human mechanism shown by different studies. Oil pollution is responsible for environmental
deterioration due to its adverse effects on estuarine biota, fish and shellfishes, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Industrialization is
needed for the development of the country. But it should be eco-friendly for the effective and sustainable development and for the
protection of the environment (aquatic).
Keywords
Industrial pollution; Impacts; Biota; Development; Karnafully River
Introduction
Bangladesh is blessed with an extensive coastline of about 710 km which is mostly covered by a complex
estuarine ecosystem (Pramanik, 1988).
This estuarine ecosystem is enriched with the huge amount of living
resources such as aquatic macrophytes (i.e. Tropical moist forest, salt marshes, seagrasses and seaweeds), fisheries
,
avian fauna, animals and coral reefs (Kamal and Khan, 2009).
In Bangladesh, the estuarine system is comprised
mainly of the Brahmaputra - Megna (Gangetic delta), Karnafully, Matamuhuri, Bakkhali and Naf rivers etc.
However, the Karnafully estuary (Figure 1) originating from the Lushai hills of Asam in India ultimately finds its
way into the Bay of Bengal through the south-eastern coast of Bangladesh (O’ Mallery, 1908). This estuary is an
important for many aspects including navigation, transportation, fishing activities, docking yards, the industrial
utility of river water (Siddique and Akter, 2012). Moreover, it is used for port activities, fishing and industries
(cooling and processing purposes) (Sarkar, 1998). But pollution is rapidly increasing and crossing safe limit day
by day in the Karnafully River Estuary hampering coastal fisheries and people (Forkan, 2003). Water pollution
occurs when foreign materials, either from natural or other sources mixes with water, contaminate water supplies
and may be harmful to life because of their toxicity and the reduction of the normal O
2
level of water as well as
they also have aesthetically unpalatable effects which are responsible for the spread of epidemic diseases (Pandey,
1997). This river receives a lot of canals, tributaries and small river, which has been played a dominant role on the
hydrobiology of the Karnafully River, contributing large amount of contaminated water, solid wastes, sewage
(Hossain et al., 2006
)
. The latest addition to the fertilizer industry is a modern installation with a proper stream,
but Hossain (1992) reported that the Karnafully estuary is, nevertheless, being polluted by its effluents. About 800
industrial units are located on and adjacent to the banks of the Karnafully in different industrial areas such as
Kalurghat, Nashirabad, Sagarica and Anawara industrial zone as well as oil refinery, oil companies depot, ship
