Speakers at a function in the city on Friday stressed the need for applying technical expertise on washing and finishing processes in the readymade garment (RMG) sector for protecting the country’s environment, reports UNB.

They were speaking at a certificate distribution ceremony at the Jatiya Press Club. IFC-SEDF organised the two-week training programme titled ‘Training of Trainers’ (TOT) on Garment Washing and Finishing’, said an IFC-SEDF press release.

Deputy coordinator of IFC-SEDF (Sector Programme) Zakiuz Zaman and president of Bangladesh Export Oriented Garments Washing Industries Association (BEOGWIA) Engineer Shafiqur Rahman distributed certificates among 20 participants of the training course.

They said garment processing (washing-dying-finishing) services are key components of the garment supply chain in Bangladesh. At present, they said, 95 per cent of the total woven garment exports require some sort of wet processing.

There are more than 1,700 export-oriented small and medium enterprises with washing and dyeing operations within the sector. But the environment faces threat for lack of technical expertise and awareness about the best techniques for wet and dry garment processing, they told the function.

They said this often leads to wastage in operational activity, higher cost of production, and in many cases the effluents are discharged into the environment, causing long-term environmental damage, particularly to low-lying arable lands and fisheries.

This affects millions of people, reduce agricultural output, fish production, and increase gastrointestinal and skin diseases, they added.

President of BEOGWIA Engineer Shafiqur Rahman, managing director of SF Washing Limited Fuad Abdullah, CEO of Japan’s Sangyo Namba Company Limited Hiroharu Namba and Zaki Uz Zaman of IFC-SEDF, among others, spoke at the function.