Bangladesh > Pollution in Bangladesh

Pollution in Bangladesh

Urbanization has lead to making our lives easier but on the contrary, it has several bad impacts on the environment. When most of the world is struggling against air pollution, Bangladesh also falls in the same list. This nation has witnessed uncountable deaths due to unmanageable air pollution.

You will be dumbstruck to know that Bangladesh observed massive numbers of deaths of 234, 000 in the year 2015 that includes 80,000 only from the urban areas. The only reason for this is the environment pollution along with the associated health risk. This makes Bangladesh one of the badly affected nations across the world – revealed in the World Bank report.

This number of deaths due to environmental pollution is more than the deaths due to accidents – 10 times more than other accidental deaths. The rates of accidental deaths are 21,286.

Dhaka is one of the worst polluted cities in the world and requires immediate addressing of the environmental pollution of the city. Deaths from several other causes sum up to 843,000 in the nation. From these huge numbers, 28% of the deaths are due to environmental pollution – which is the highest numbers from other South Asian nations.

In South Asia, such death rate is approximately 26 percent while 16 percent across the world.

Why Bangladesh’s Environment is in Danger?

  • 75% of the nation’s canals and wetlands are being narrowed by the encroachments over the last 40 years.
  • From the year 2010- 16, 21% of the water retention areas and 41% of the flood-prone zones are being filled up in the areas in Dhaka.
  • With the growth of urbanization, there has been an immense multiplication in the solid waste generation.
  • As the numbers of waste disposal areas reduced in numbers, the canals and wetlands become a dumping ground resulting in immense environmental pollution.
  • Floods occurring in the urban area results in significant damage to the public health along with results in causing infectious diseases, livelihoods along with the infrastructure.
death rate due to environmental risks in South Asian Nations

There are two prime reasons for such air pollution in Bangladesh- Industrial emission and vehicle emissions. These are generally found in the urban cities Along with these, there are various other brick-making kilns that are seasonally operated especially during the dry seasons throughout Bangladesh. These Kilns make use of wood and coal as the main source of energy this, therefore, results in the emission of the harmful matters like sulfur oxides along with various other volatile organic compounds.

Furthermore, some of the used rubber wheels are being burnt that produce highly toxic gases and black carbon. There is no doubt that these are no less like injecting poisons in your health. To suffice the high rate of the population of the nation, there is a growth of buildings, which is also resulting in increase of slum areas. The unstoppable population growth is making it unfeasible for going forward and maintaining a cleaner and safer environment.

Economic Loss

Disability and deaths associated with labour output have equaled to $1.4 billion across the urban locations in the nation. Dhaka city alone stands to 310 million which is almost equal to 0.1 and 0.6% of the nation’s GDP in the year 2015 alone.

The environmental challenges faced by the cities in Bangladesh, given to such scenario the WB has estimated the impact and the reason for the high degradation of the natural resources and pollution levels in Dhaka along with other growing cities.

In the past few decades, this nation has experienced a huge increase in pollution whose main reason is Urbanization. The immense growth in the garment industry along with more number of urban population which account from 40 million in the year 2006 to over 55 million in the year 2015 are some of the significant factors exposing urban population growth to the hazards.

The Only Way Out

In order to bring things into control, Bangladesh needs to make several changes. For a greener environment, it is recommended by WB to fortify institutions and policies along with implementing the environmental standards. This will shift the increasing water, air pollution and industrial pollution to a clean environment. Enforcing technologies can be a great help for this nation.