Recently the buzz on the media is the two-year celebration of 400 Years of Capital City Dhaka, Bangladesh, we wanted to post a thought provoking article from our readers, Enjoy!

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By now many of us have watched Al Gore starred movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘; many of us have known about the danger of global warming. Buriganga, Photo Source: The Daily StarWe know how quickly the glaciers in the North Pole are melting raising the sea level, that if the sea level rises, Bangladesh will be one of the most vulnerable areas on earth that can be submerged under water by year 2025.

However, in the context of Bangladesh, environmental pollution is already so severe that the bigger picture of global warming scenario may seem far away. For Bangladesh, it is not just global warming; we are polluting our own environment everyday. Especially for Dhaka, our Capital - the City that we are so proud of, we are polluting its air, water, soil/land; not to mention noise pollution and light pollution- all due to our lack of proper planning, and due to our lack of sensitivity towards saving the environment. There are so many aspects of this issue that here with this discussion we can try to focus only on what we can do at our end to protect our own environment.

Air pollution in Dhaka does not need more discussion; we all know how bad it has been due to cars and truck emissions and industrial fumes; these are the largest polluters of the environment not only in Bangladesh but throughout the world. Dhaka, a city that runs by the great river Buriganga, could have made the best use of the river for businesses and tourism. Instead, we are dumping all industrial waste to the river, making it one of the most polluted rivers in Bangladesh. We are filing in our wetlands, swamps and other low lands with new constructions. Thus we are losing our channels for a proper drainage system, making the City more vulnerable to flood and water clogging. Our waste management system is also vulnerable due to the increasing pressure of population. In my knowledge, there is no hard and fast regulations in Bangladesh that are being implemented to prevent pollution from cars, or industries; or to regulate them from generating noise. The cumulative impact of all these is the deterioration of the environment and quality of life.

These may not seem so severe to many. Because when we grew up with all these, we became used to these. But the fact is whether we agree or not, our environment is deteriorating every single day! If we are concern for our next generation, we need to be proactive to save our environment. We individually may not solve the entire problem, but if we raise our awareness level, if we make efforts for our collective voices to be heard, we sure can make a difference.

Here are some thoughts as to what we can do at personal level irrespective of where we live (Please offer your ideas). We can make efforts to preserve energy by saving energy (natural gas, petroleum, electricity) through conservation; we can use transit buses, car pools (car sharing) thereby causing less air pollution; we can buy hybrid cars (or not buy cars at all if possible); we can use bi-cycles or walk; we recycle products (cans, plastic, paper, cloths); we prevent water wastage in our day to day use; we can buy energy efficient products; we talk to our business owners, builders or car driver friends about noise pollution; and we try to preserve our parks, wetlands and rivers when it comes to a collective decision making. On top of all of these, we ask our governments what their environmental agendas are; we elect leaders who have commitments for preserving the environment. We like to hear from our readers on what they think are important to preserve our environment.

Related links:

A recent proposal by Government published at DS: Plan to pipe in water from Jamuna

My response to the article; Saving Buriganga