Abstract
River pollution through the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluent is a perverse outcome of rapid urbanisation and economic growth across Asia. To understand the socio-spatial and seasonal inequalities in pollution risks, we designed a direct observation method to record people’s daily river use activities across dry and wet seasons, complemented by monthly monitoring of river water quality, heavy metal and biotoxicity assessment a large-scale household survey along a 25km stretch of the Turag River and Tongi Khal in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We found very high ammonia and almost zero dissolved oxygen during the low flow season, further exacerbated by heavy metals from the annual Bishwa Ijtema gathering and downstream industrial zones. Pollution exposure through domestic activities prevailed throughout the year, particularly for women and girls along low-income settlements lacking adequate water and sanitation facilities. Swimming peaked among men and children in the monsoon, risking exposure to pathogen pollution. Recognising the social inequalities in risk can support the sequencing of policy action involving short-term adaptation (improved services, education, advocacy) and long-term mitigation (effluent treatment, regulation and enforcement) responses.
Highlights
River pollution through discharge of untreated wastewater has plagued developing economies since the dawn of the industrial revolution (Parker 1932, Hostetter 2006)
We present the first longitudinal analysis of the socio-spatial and seasonal dynamics of exposure to urban river pollution, by systematically documenting who interacts with the river and for what purpose, and how these activity patterns vary with the state water and sanitation facilities, river water quality, time of the year and sociodemographic characteristics
As indicated by the total organic carbon (TOC), is highest in January owing to the dumping of faecal and food waste in the Tongi Khal during Ijtema
Summary
River pollution through discharge of untreated wastewater has plagued developing economies since the dawn of the industrial revolution (Parker 1932, Hostetter 2006). Geospatial analysis at city or regional scale, through superposition of socio-demographic indicators on pollution parameters, often found the location of polluting factories and waste facilities to be associated with a higher proportion of socially disadvantaged populations, such as scheduled caste and tribes (Chakraborty and Basu 2019, Morandeira et al 2019). These analyses reveal little about the daily risks faced by riverine communities who come into contact with toxic pollutants through domestic, productive, and leisure activities. The biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the textile wastewater are estimated to be 480 mg l−1 and 696 mg l−1 respectively, compared to a BOD of 2000 mg l−1 and COD of 4500mg l−1 for tannery effluent (Sagris and Abbott 2015)
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