An Overview on the Impacts of Textile Effluents on the Aquatic Ecosystem in Turag River at Bangladesh

Abstract

The Turag River has an extensive reputation for backing the coastal people’s income for years; nonetheless, its burden is enormous owing to numerous anthropogenic drivers. DEPZ (Dhaka Export Processing Zone) can be considered one of the crucial zones for textile industries. DEPZ is situated in Savar, and the nearest river is Turag, the upper tributary of the Buriganga. The Turag originates from the Bangshi River, the latter an essential branch of the Dhaleshwari River. Since this area is a cluster area for the industries, Turag has been identified as the most affected waterbody by the industrial effluents. Some research was conducted on the characteristics of the effluents and the impact on the nearby land, water bodies, and the health of the human and aquatic systems of the adjacent area of DEPZ. Still, there is a gap in research on species richness and abundance in the Turag River. IUCN red list 2000, IUCN red list 2015, and the MACH project are reliable sources of information found. Since 2015, IUCN red list has not been updated, and limited research has been conducted to update the severity of the current status. This write-up tries to review and summarize findings from other research and find the gaps. There was no quantitative inventory information on fish abundance and richness. Hopefully, it will be helpful to project the importance of protecting aquatic biodiversity, and law enforcement will be strengthened. More research is needed to save the endangered native aquatic species’ biodiversity. If used with more information, this article can be a stepping stone in the right direction for scholars.