more than of toxic waste, including textile dyeing, printing, washing and pharmaceuticals, are released into the main water bodies of dhaka every day. according to the dhaka water and sewerage authority (wasa), about of untreated waste are released into the lake from tejgaon, badda and mohakhali industrial areas every day. the waste mostly comes from garment washing and dyeing plants. textile industries annually discharge as much as 56 million tonnes of waste and 0.5 million tonnes of sludge. sewage is also released into the buriganga. a newspaper article from 2004 indicated that up to 80% of dhaka's sewage was untreated. because of dhaka's heavy reliance on river transport for goods, including food, the buriganga receives especially high amounts of food waste since unusable or rotting portions of fruits, vegetables, and fish are thrown into the river.