Effects of Karnaphuli paper mill effluents on the Karnaphuli river water

Karnaphuli Paper Mill (KPM) is the country’s largest and state-owned paper mill, located at Chandraghona, Chattogram, alongside the Karnaphuli River. At present, 10 to 12 tonnes of paper are being produced daily, resulting in approximately 1000 to 1200 tonnes of waste effluents every day. The water of the Karnaphuli River is being polluting due to untreated effluents discharged from KPM outlets, posing a threat to the Karnaphuli River’s aquatic lives. Thus, this research is carried out to test the raw effluents of KPM and the Karnaphuli River water, to compare the water quality with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bangladesh Environmental Conservative Rules (BECR, 1997) standards to find out the effects of this water on aquatic lives and to suggest remedial measures. Raw effluents were collected from three points of outlets of KPM, and the river water were collected from ten points at upstream and ten points at downstream of outlet at an interval of 100 m each to test the water quality parameters, such as, pH, BOD, COD, total dissolved solids (TDS), Alkalinity, Hardness, Chloride, Turbidity, Fecal coliform, Al, Sn, and Co. The test results were found to be satisfactory, except a few parameters at few locations, which might have negative impacts on river water and aquatic lives. To mitigate the unacceptable concentrations, it is suggested to set up an effluent treatment plant (ETP) to treat the KPM effluents before discharging into the Karnaphuli River.