Sustainability of Wastewater Management: A Socio-Ecological System (SES) Approach for Textile Industry in Bangladesh

The textile and ready-made garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh accounts for nearly 80% of export earnings and contributes more than 12% of the national GDP (Arup, 2014). 54% of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) in Bangladesh are performing to the potential level and the rest of 46% of ETPs are not performing lack of institutional attitudes, deficiency of stakeholders‘ persecution, corruption, etc (Hossain et al., 2018). The people in the factory, neighbors and whole communities are significantly infected by untreated or poorly treated effluent wastewater from textile factories pose serious health threats, agricultural collapse, terrestrial degradation and environmental pollution (Mohiuddin, 2019; Nishat, 2001; Motlagh, 2013).

Institutional reluctance, public policy violation, lack of land use regulation, low willingness to engage in environmental protection activities are root causes for effluent wastewater of the textile industry in Bangladesh (Animesh K, et al., 2020). Moreover, an implementation strategy, institutional monitoring, owers‘ transparency and accountability, individual & community influences and environment integration action is missing for sustainability management in the textile industry of Bangladesh (Sallis & Owen, 2002). Water and wastewater play an important role in the economy, energy and socio-ecological natural resources for the sustainable textile industry of Bangladesh. Agriculture, fisheries, commerce, and navigation are all dependent on the sustainable use of water resources (Ostrom, 2009).

Research Objectives

The research will address the challenges of wastewater management in the textile industry and its impact on the downstream wetland, individual, industrial and communities. The study will analyze the socio-ecological system (SES) postulates that behavior is influenced by a variety of factors including not only individual-level knowledge, attitudes and behavior but also public policy, institutional, community and societal level for sustainable wastewater management in the textile industry. The research will indicate recommendations to improve the practice and effectiveness of wastewater management by the textile industry. A systematic review, methodological framework and results of testing methodology in the case study will be operationalized in this research.

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Arup. (2014). An Analysis of Industrial Water Use in Bangladesh with a Focus on the Leather and Textile Industries. Bangladesh.

Ostrom, E. (2009).A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems, Science 325(5939), 419-422.DOI: 10.1126/science.1172133

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Nishat, A.; Shammin, P.; Faisal, I.; Junaid, J. (2001). Industrial Pollution. In Bangladesh Environment OutLook—2001; Nishat, A., Ullah, M., Haque, A.K.E., Eds., Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD): Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2001.

Sallis JF., & Owen N. (2002). Ecological models of health behavior.In: Glanz K, Rimer BK, Lewis FM, eds. Health education and health behavior: theory, research and practice. 3rded. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 2002:462–484.