A workshop was jointly organized by the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), Prime Minister’s Office and 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on “Central Effluent Treatment Plants for Economic Zones in Bangladesh” in April 2017 in Dhaka.

The workshop, chaired by Mr. Paban Chowdhury, Executive Chairman (Secretary), BEZA, was attended by 120 participants including high level participants from the public, private, civil society/academia, financial institutions, multilateral and developmental organizations.

The aim of the workshop was to promote ‘Green Economic Zones’ through implementation of ‘Resource Recovery and Reuse’ (RRR) in Bangladesh to drive demand for foreign direct investments into a wide variety of sectors.

The Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) in economic zones are considered a viable treatment solution for collective treatment of effluents, from industries of all sizes and scale. CETPs could potentially help in achieving treatment of combined wastewater from various industries at lower unit costs and also help facilitate better compliance and monitoring with standards. The workshop was held to address the challenges associated with CETPs.

The workshop helped gather key inputs from government bodies, industry, technology providers, infrastructure developers, investors and experts on status of CETPs, their performances along with type of technical, financial and managerial models adopted, international experiences and practices, issues of concern etc.

The event included a MoU signing ceremony between BEZA, 230 WRG and GIZ to start a technical and knowledge partnership to develop recommendations on government policies, design business models, and to develop innovative and viable financial solutions (including PPPs) supporting smooth rollout of CETPs.