At dawn, Mumtaz Begum’s courtyard tells the story of the night before.

The clothes she hung to dry, the leaves on the trees in her yard, and even her bedsheets inside the house are coated with a thin film of ash.

As a child she swam and fished in the GK canal; today, dipping her feet into the same water makes her skin itch.

Mumtaz fights daily to save the crop on her three bigha land against a pollution she cannot trace to a start date -- she only knows everything changed as rice mills kept springing up around her.

Some 25,000 to 30,000 people in the Khajanagar area under Kushtia Sadar upazila live with this pollution just as Mumtaz does.

Black smoke, airborne ash and untreated waste from at least 300 auto and husking rice mills have devastated local agriculture, public health and several canals of the district’s vital Ganges-Kobadak (GK) irrigation project.

NO CLEARANCE

According to Habibul Bashar, senior chemist at the Department of Environment (DoE) in Kushtia, Khajanagar has around 200 husking mills, with only six or seven having clearance. Of 65 to 70 auto rice mills, about 40 are licensed.

Renewal is denied once airborne particulate matter crosses the 400ppm limit, and 20 to 25 establishments currently have renewals stuck for this reason.

Yet Khajanagar has no permanent air-quality monitoring station (the nearest are in Rajshahi and Jashore) and no integrated survey has ever measured the area’s overall pollution.

Habibul said every mill must have a cyclone separator to control ash and dust, but many switch theirs off at night to save electricity. Hot water used for soaking paddy is supposed to sit in a reservoir for 24 hours, per High Court directive, before reaching the canal -- a rule widely ignored.

The polluted zone spans roughly 10 square kilometres, affecting four to five villages.

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‘DUMPING GROUND’

A few kilometres down the Alamdanga road off the Kushtia-Jhenaidah highway, countless rice mills and drying yards appear, worked by men and women in groups.

Five kilometres from Kushtia town, Khajanagar is known nationwide for the polished (miniket) rice, meeting nearly 30 percent of the country’s demand.

Resident Ambia Gulshan Rina recalled the GK canal past her Mathpara home was once wide, clear and full of life. “Now there is no way to step into it.”

She says mills dump waste and ash under cover of darkness. A group of village women have tried cleaning it themselves, but within days it reverts to its filthy state.

“Sometimes we clean the canal’s filth ourselves, but within a few days it turns dirty again just like before,” Rina said.

Amjad Hossain, a retired police officer, grew up bathing and fishing in this canal. He said mills began appearing here in the late 70s, and the canal worsened as their numbers grew.

“Farmers once depended on this canal’s water for irrigation. Now it’s hard to tell whether it’s a canal or a drain,” Amjad said.

Mill pipes and unplanned waste disposal have disrupted water flow; in the monsoon, the canal overflows onto farmland.

“We can barely draw irrigation water from the canal anymore. Farmers now rely on deep tube wells, which is pushing up costs,” Mumtaz Begum said.

With no way to abandon land their families have held for generations, residents say they are forced to adapt.

ASH EVERYWHERE

Resident Nur Islam Byapari said, “Furniture, clothes, and even food get covered in ash. Everyone from children to the elderly is suffering from breathing trouble. We’ve complained repeatedly, but nothing has changed.”

Winter is worse: husk-like particles fill the air by day, ash thickens at night, and stepping outside without glasses grows difficult.

At Kaburhat Secondary School, foul-smelling wastewater from two nearby mills overflows into the premises, keeps children off the playground most of the year.

“Three years ago this school had about 1,200 students. Because of the foul water and poor environment, that’s now dropped to 800,” said assistant teacher Md Shahjahan.

Headteacher Khandakar Tariq Hossain said, “Many complaints have been filed over this. Nothing has come of it.”

A PATTERN OF VIOLATIONS

Following complaints, the deputy commissioner formed an 11-member investigation committee in July, headed by the district food controller with the DoE deputy director as member-secretary.

On July 29, the committee inspected five mills, finding none had modern wastewater treatment, with waste going straight into the canals, while two had no ash-control measures at all.

Committee chairman Al-Waziur Rahman said irregularities in ash management, liquid waste and road misuse had come to their notice.

“After a verbal warning to mill owners, they will soon be notified in writing and given time to correct the issues, or the strictest measures will be taken,” he said.

Committee member-secretary Emdadul Haque told this newspaper yesterday that a total of 55 auto rice mills have been inspected, and most of them had faults.

“We have not inspected the husking mills, but we issued verbal warnings to them, as most of them are violating regulations. A report with the committee’s recommendations is nearly complete, which is expected to be submitted to the deputy commissioner in early September,” said Emdadul, also the deputy director of the Kushtia DoE.

According to Emdadul, the DoE inspects each rice mill several times a year for licence renewal, environmental compliance monitoring and investigation of public grievance complaints.

To obtain a licence, rice mills must secure clearance certificates from multiple agencies, including the DoE, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), the Power Division, the Fire Service, the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, and the Department of Explosives.

NOT EVERY MILL

Zainal Abedin Pradhan, general secretary of the mill owners’ association, said they too want a pollution-free Khajanagar without shutting the industry down, and that guidance has already been given to owners.

Another representative claimed mills predated the settlements, and both grew together over time. He did not deny pollution exists but said some mills follow the rules while many don’t.

The association has sought two months to address ash, wastewater and noise.

“We’re working on three things: ash, noise and water pollution. We’ll do whatever is needed so people don’t suffer and the environment isn’t harmed,” he said.

“Mill owners are not lacking in sincerity. If the state takes initiative, we will cooperate. We do not stand with any mill that breaks the rules.”