World Environment Day

We observed the World Environment Day yesterday in the backdrop of the United States withdrawing from the Paris agreement, a huge disappointment worldwide. What was heartening was that China, along with other leading countries, have decided to forge ahead on the climate deal because climate change is a reality, and it is a global problem.

At the national level, we have several climate change funds to deal with the adverse effects of global warming, including the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund and Bangladesh Climate Resilience Fund. The former suffered an image crisis as there have been allegations of misallocation of funds. There is also the question of transparency. The other funds that have been set up suffer from slow disbursement.

And it is not just climate induced changes that we are suffering from. Our inability to combat air pollution by failing to limit the growth of brick kilns in the vicinity of the capital city has been taking its toll on public health. Unplanned industrialisation around major urban centres like Dhaka and Chittagong, and the uncontrolled dumping of untreated toxic industrial effluents have played havoc with farmland productivity and depleted our fish stocks as the rivers and major waterways become polluted.

The prime minister has stated recently that her government intends to expand the natural mangrove forest of the Sundarbans and the major development projects going on there will have no adverse effects. There are however, reservations on the issue and we would like to see policymakers take proactive measures to limit the damage to the environment through environmental policy implementation.

This article previously mentioned that Dhaka was the second most polluted city in the world. It has since been corrected: Dhaka, according to WHO data is not the second most polluted city in the world.