The Bangladesh team is very clued up about the direction that the company is moving towards and all efforts are aligned to the objective.“ We have a clear roadmap of what we are aiming for and how it’ s going to be done, structured on the foundation of global targets that the company has set. We achieve these benchmarks in Bangladesh by setting a higher target than what has been provided to us,” says Angelo Leanage, Managing Director, A & E Bangladesh Ltd. Managing Environment, Health and Safety( EHS) is not only the top priority but is also considered as one of the core values for all initiatives that A & E undertakes. Environment Management … Water Resources at the Core
The A & E factory is a role model in sustainable practices with preservation and treatment of water, an important aspect of the efforts, wherein water is treated at two stages – before use, coming from fresh source( WTP); and when water, that has been already used, is treated for further reuse( ETP). Talking about the processes that are being followed, Angelo explains,“ In water treatment engineering, two things are very important: first the processed water for daily use, and second
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the pre-used water for industrial usage.” To ensure that treated water meets these goals, water treatment is of two types: Pre-module and Post-module water treatment. The pre-module water is collected from sources like river or rain and given treatment right from pH levels, hardness to sterilizing the water for dyeing purposes.“ Groundwater has a hardness that needs to be removed before dyeing as it affects the quality and consistency of dyeing,” adds Angelo.
The ability to reuse the water optimally, post treatment is an added edge, irrespective of whether the same is discharged to the pond or reused in the plant. Based on the reusing pattern, the water has to be retreated again with the help of ETP. How effective the ETP is, depends on the processes involved-- Reverse Osmosis( RO), chemically treated, biotreated, to name a few.“ With RO, we can use 40 per cent of water again for dyeing; at the moment we are discharging out or we are using it for gardening, car washing,” shares Angelo. He adds that though the ETP they are using is not zero discharge, but whatever water is being discharged has the right pH level, colour, DO, COD, BOD, TDS and other parameters. All the parameters are being monitored in A & E lab daily and also by third party lab time to time.
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As a sustainably conscious factory, A & E has installed an ETP that is using the latest technology- membrane bioreactor process( MBR) which actually prepares water for the RO level and meets all global standards in clean water. |
As a sustainably conscious factory, A & E has installed an ETP that is using the latest technology – membrane bioreactor process( MBR), which actually prepares water for the RO level and meets all global standards in clean water.“ I have visited 50-60 factories in Bangladesh and 15-16 in other countries, but nowhere have I seen this system yet. As far as I know, we are the only MBR plant in Bangladesh, in textile. The treatment process has one of the advanced technologies which we can extend to extract even drinking water levels,” avers Angelo.
Though investment in the MBR system was huge, A & E feels that the investment is not about how much one spends today, but also about investing in the future.“ We look at it as the future of the planet; the cost is there but the question is really – what do we want? I mean, probably 50 years down the line, everyone will only have a bottle of water. Therefore, we need to put the right water back into the ground again. Also, it is good for business in the long run as globally, sustainability is the priority. Further, the investment helps us to get the right quality of water, which improves the overall quality of dyeing and for whatever we discharge, we make sure that it is the right quality of water so
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