IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i7p1951-d219202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Water Pollution and the Textile Industry in Bangladesh: Flawed Corporate Practices or Restrictive Opportunities?

Author

Listed:
  • Maiko Sakamoto

    (Department of International Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 2778563, Japan)

  • Tofayel Ahmed

    (JADE Bangladesh, House # 66, Road # 08, Niketon, Gulkshan-1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh)

  • Salma Begum

    (Institute of Development Studies and Sustainability, United International University, United City, Madani Avenue, Baridhara, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh)

  • Hamidul Huq

    (Institute of Development Studies and Sustainability, United International University, United City, Madani Avenue, Baridhara, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh)

Abstract

The textile industry in Bangladesh has been a great engine for boosting economic growth in the country. However, with great success came environmental deterioration. Untreated effluents containing heavy metals are being released into rivers from nearby factories, affecting the health of people who live along the polluted rivers. The existing law in Bangladesh, requiring such factories to install an effluent treatment plant (ETP), has not been effective in reducing environmental noncompliance. This paper aims to investigate the reality of the situation that the textile industry faces regarding environmental compliance. It is based on primary data collected from textile factories in Dhaka through a questionnaire survey with complementary interviews. This study especially highlights the barriers and difficulties faced by factories in the installation and operation of ETPs. The results confirm previous findings: Low willingness of companies to meet environmental compliance requirements and inadequate monitoring and enforcement by government authorities. In addition, we reveal that the dominant barriers to ETP installation are at the purchase stage, rather than the construction stage: ETPs are unavailable in local markets and the import tax is high. Institutional arrangements are required to improve this situation; this could include establishing a subsidy scheme that would encourage voluntary construction of central ETPs. We suggest that external pressure is essential for Bangladesh to change and the external bodies exerting such pressure should have objective measures by which to judge compliance; the quality of river water might be the only reliable measure of environmental compliance in this situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Maiko Sakamoto & Tofayel Ahmed & Salma Begum & Hamidul Huq, 2019. "Water Pollution and the Textile Industry in Bangladesh: Flawed Corporate Practices or Restrictive Opportunities?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-14, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1951-:d:219202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1951/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1951/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ataur Rahman Belal & David L. Owen, 2007. "The views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 472-494, June.
    2. AK Mohiuddin, 2019. "Chemical Contaminants and Pollutants in the Measurable Life of Dhaka City," Global Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 6(5), pages 111-120, January.
    3. Belal, Ataur Rahman & Cooper, Stuart M. & Khan, Niaz Ahmed, 2015. "Corporate environmental responsibility and accountability: What chance in vulnerable Bangladesh?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 44-58.
    4. Chandan Roy, 2012. "A Study on Environmental Compliance of Indian Leather Industry & its Far-reaching Impact on Leather Exports," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 47(2), pages 3-36, July.
    5. Asadul Hoque & Muhammad Mohiuddin & Zhan Su, 2018. "Effects of Industrial Operations on Socio-Environmental and Public Health Degradation: Evidence from a Least Developing Country (LDC)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-22, October.
    6. Dasgupta, Susmita & Laplante, Benoit & Mamingi, Nlandu & Wang, Hua, 2001. "Inspections, pollution prices, and environmental performance: evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 487-498, March.
    7. Hilson, Gavin, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility in the extractive industries: Experiences from developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 131-137.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Liu & Roy Brouwer & Dilruba Fatima Sharmin & Susan Elliott & Leah Govia & Danielle Lindamood, 2022. "Industry Perspectives on Water Pollution Management in a Fast Developing Megacity: Evidence from Dhaka, Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Khandaker, Shahjalal & Bashar, M Mahbubul & Islam, Aminul & Hossain, Md. Tofazzal & Teo, Siow Hwa & Awual, Md. Rabiul, 2022. "Sustainable energy generation from textile biowaste and its challenges: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Sanderson Kyeraa Yeboah & Henrietta Mary Davis. M.A & Andoh Nicholas, 2024. "The Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on employee’s Performance in Ghana Army in Accra, Ghana," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 11(8), pages 200-218, August.
    4. Maiko Sakamoto & Salma Begum & Tofayel Ahmed, 2020. "Vulnerabilities to COVID-19 in Bangladesh and a Reconsideration of Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Joshi, Deepa & Haque, S. & Nahar, K. & Tania, S. & Singh, J. & Wallace, T., 2022. "Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh," IWMI Books, Reports H050845, International Water Management Institute.
    6. Qinghua Fu & Wafa Ghardallou & Ubaldo Comite & Irfan Siddique & Heesup Han & Juan Manuel Arjona-Fuentes & Antonio Ariza-Montes, 2022. "The Role of CSR in Promoting Energy-Specific Pro-Environmental Behavior among Hotel Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeeshan Mahmood & Rehana Kouser & Md. Abdul Kaium Masud, 2019. "An emerging economy perspective on corporate sustainability reporting – main actors’ views on the current state of affairs in Pakistan," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-31, December.
    2. Sudipta Bose & Amitav Saha & Indra Abeysekera, 2020. "The Value Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility Expenditure: Evidence from Regulatory Decisions," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(4), pages 455-494, December.
    3. Gilbert K. Amoako & Anokye M. Adam & George Tackie & Clement Lamboi Arthur, 2021. "Environmental Accountability Practices of Environmentally Sensitive Firms in Ghana: Does Institutional Isomorphism Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-14, August.
    4. Muhammad Azizul Islam & Craig Deegan & Rob Gray, 2018. "Social compliance audits and multinational corporation supply chain: evidence from a study of the rituals of social audits," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 190-224, February.
    5. Gilbert Kwabena Amoako & Anokye M. Adam & Clement Lamboi Arthur & George Tackie, 2021. "Institutional isomorphism, environmental management accounting and environmental accountability: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 11201-11216, August.
    6. Belal, Ataur Rahman & Cooper, Stuart M. & Roberts, Robin W., 2013. "Vulnerable and exploitable: The need for organisational accountability and transparency in emerging and less developed economies," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 81-91.
    7. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Khan, Habib Zaman & Bose, Sudipta & Johns, Raechel, 2020. "Regulatory influences on CSR practices within banks in an emerging economy: Do banks merely comply?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Adams, Dawda & Adams, Kweku & Ullah, Subhan & Ullah, Farid, 2019. "Globalisation, governance, accountability and the natural resource ‘curse’: Implications for socio-economic growth of oil-rich developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 128-140.
    10. Belal, Ataur Rahman & Cooper, Stuart M. & Khan, Niaz Ahmed, 2015. "Corporate environmental responsibility and accountability: What chance in vulnerable Bangladesh?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 44-58.
    11. Minga Negash & Tesfaye T. Lemma, 2020. "Institutional pressures and the accounting and reporting of environmental liabilities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1941-1960, July.
    12. Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Seong Mi Bae & Jong Dae Kim, 2017. "Analysis of Environmental Accounting and Reporting Practices of Listed Banking Companies in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Osman, Mohamed & Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2021. "Contextualising and critically theorising corporate social responsibility reporting: Dynamics of the late Mubarak Era in Egypt," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. Inés Macho-Stadler, 2008. "Environmental regulation: choice of instruments under imperfect compliance," Spanish Economic Review, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, March.
    15. Zhengxia He & Shichun Xu & Wenxing Shen & Meiling Wang & Cunfang Li, 2019. "Exploring external and internal pressures on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China: A qualitative study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 951-969, September.
    16. Kjetil Telle, 2004. "Effects of inspections on plants' regulatory and environmental performance - evidence from Norwegian manufacturing industries," Discussion Papers 381, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    17. B. S. Choudri & Mahad Baawain & Khalifa Al-Zeidi & Hamood Al-Nofli & Rashid Al-Busaidi & Khalifa Al-Fazari, 2017. "Citizen perception on environmental responsibility of the corporate sector in rural areas," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 2565-2576, December.
    18. Helfaya, Akrum & Aboud, Ahmed & Amin, Essam, 2023. "An examination of corporate environmental goals disclosure, sustainability performance and firm value – An Egyptian evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. Canfei He & Fenghua Pan & Yan Yan, 2012. "Is Economic Transition Harmful to China’s Urban Environment? Evidence from Industrial Air Pollution in Chinese Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1767-1790, June.
    20. Soobaroyen, Teerooven & Ntim, Collins G., 2013. "Social and environmental accounting as symbolic and substantive means of legitimation: The case of HIV/AIDS reporting in South Africa," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 92-109.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1951-:d:219202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.