Use of animal, fish feed from toxic wastes to be stopped

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Saturday, 28 January 2012

Author / Source : ANISUR RAHMAN KHAN

DHAKA, JAN 27: In a bid to curb the use of toxic components in fish and animal feed, the government has decided to strictly enforce the Fish Feed and Animal Feed Act, 2010. Within the next two months, law enforcers will bring producers of such toxic feed under the scanner. If caught, they will face harsh punishment, said the minister for fisheries and livestock, Abdul Latif Biswas.

The act will bring all types of fish and animal feed under proper packaging with clearly stated production and expiry dates. Unlicenced feed for fish and animals, having no date of production and expiry, will be barred from being marketed.
The law states that producers must concentrate on proper packaging without using anti-biotic growth hormones, insecticides, steroids and other harmful elements. In case of any violation of the law, the guilty party will be sentenced to a year’s imprisonment or fined up to Tk. 50,000 or both. However, such crimes would be non-cognizable and bailable.
“We are going to launch an all-out action against the producers of fish and poultry feed,” said the minister, reacting to media reports, including an Independent news item which was published in December 2011.
“Those who are involved in producing harmful poultry, fish and animal feed will not be spared,” he added. “We could not implement the law due to some constraints. Now, we are being serious about it. Our field level officials will help catch the unscrupulous producers,” Biswas emphasised. Dr MA Matin, general secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA), told The Independent that the government should apply the law immediately to stop production of toxic fish and poultry feed from poisonous wastes.
“We welcome the government’s move to formulate the law. We’ll be grateful if the government imposes a ban on such life-threatening feed produced from tannery wastes,” he said.
Environmental balance of the entire Hazaribagh area has gone haywire owing to burning of tannery wastes to prepare animal and fish feed, he added.
However, the government has failed to check the production of poultry and fish feed from chromium and sulfuric acid mixed solid tannery wastes, which pose great health hazards. This was confirmed by laboratory tests in the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial  Research (BCSIR). The tests also revealed the existence of lead and chromium in such feed. The Independent reported the news on May 4, 2010.
Despite the High Court’s prohibition, a section of unscrupulous businessmen are producing poultry and fish feeds from tannery wastes in the city’s Hazaribagh area.
The HC slapped a three-month ban on the manufacture of animal and fish feed using tannery wastes. All 80 tanneries operating in Hazaribagh simply burn the wastes and convert the ashes into balls of poultry and fish meals.
The court also asked the government to explain within three weeks why it was not taking effective steps to stop this practice.
However, the tanneries continued to burn such toxic wastes from crudely processed hides and skins of cattle to sell cheap poultry and fish meals.
Sources in the Department of Environment (DoE) told The Independent that an influential syndicate has been producing such meals because of thriving demands by a fast expanding fisheries and poultry industry.