Firm political commitment needed
to combat environmental degradation

Experts, politicians, former bureaucrats and members of the civil society have said that a firm political commitment is needed to combat the massive environmental degradation in the country.

They were participating at a working session of the three-day 'Election 2001: National Policy Forum' in the city yesterday. The Forum, organised jointly by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Prothom Alo and The daily Star, began on Tuesday.

Chaired by the former Finance Minister and President of POROSH, AMA Muhith, the participants at the session discussed the CPD policy brief on the country's environmental policy.

Muhith said the political parties have never incorporated environment into their political agenda. Unless there is a political consensus and commitment, environmental degradation will be hard to check.

Prof Serajul Islam Chowdhury, who was Chief Guest, said arsenic contamination of ground water must get priority in the political agenda if the nation is to fight environmental degradation. He said diagnosis of the actual problem is necessary to fight environmental degradation. Instead of building roads, the authorities should lay railway tracks because the world has realised that railway is much more environment-friendly.

"We will have to create awareness among people and build up a people's resistance to fight aggression on the environment," Serajul Islam said, adding that Bangladesh is a state of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy is anti-democracy.

"We will not expect anything from the political parties, instead the people should be approached and grown awareness about environment," he said.

Commenting on the policy brief, Ferdousi Begum, a Plant Biotechnologist, said the report should also emphasise plant diversity. Many plants of the country are already extinct. There must be a database of all the 6,000 or so species of plants the country has, she said.

She also said brickfields and floods are destroying diversity of microorganism. Measures must be taken to protect the microorganism to use it in various purposes like waste management.

The policy report highlighted various aspects of the country's fast-degrading environment. It said Dhaka has one of the highest air pollution in the region. Most of the air pollutants are vehicular, and the pollution is a prime example of management failure. The busiest intersections of the city have the highest level of particulate matters in the air.

Prof AKM Kofiluddin said population pressure is the main reason behind environment degradation. He said training should be offered to all concerned including the politicians, about environmental management.

A participant, Mesbah Kamal, said the shrimp compartments are destroying the fertility of lakhs of acres of cultivable land. It has been found that one lakh hectares are suitable for shrimp cultivation in the country. The authorities should do the zoning component and strictly confine shrimp cultivation within the area.

Hasna Moudud said weak governance is responsible for environmental degradation. "It is not the population pressure that makes poverty, it is the degraded environment that brings poverty," she said.

The policy report recommended that the waste management of the city should be partially privatised since the municipality is unable to dump wastes into the city's dumping sites. It suggested that toxic or hazardous wastes should be disposed of using environmentally safe technology.

Ainun Nishat, Country Representative of IUCN, took down the recommendations made by the participants and said they would be included in the report. Also present at the session was Prothom Alo Editor Motiur Rahman. Dr AK Enamul Haque read out the Task Force Report to the audience.