Let’s focus on some of the major problems we have in Bangladesh that are not just problems by themselves, but also the creator of thousands of other devastating issues. The top and the most alarming hybrid problem is the over population problem. Then comes the problem of environment pollution; of course it is a global alarming issue. Even the countries with adequate population and resources are contributing to pollute the environment largely. I believe that, restoring nature and reducing pollution is not just necessary for global existence, but also mandatory for the economic development of a third world country with insufficient assets like Bangladesh. Then the related other major ecological issues are flood, droughts, lack of resources, lack of public awareness, and so on.
Since we’ve pointed out our drawbacks, now we’re ready to apply some extreme methods to overcome those barriers effectively. The first thing comes to my mind is mandatory family planning. I would suggest strict laws to prevent parents having more than two babies (the severity of this growing problem has passed the consideration of ethical issues). Sometimes it would be tough to enforce such laws, but raising public awareness would aid significantly and exemplary punishment for disobeying law could bring quite satisfactory results. Of course we need to provide necessary education and materials to the people for their encouragement and convenience. According to "The New Nation" magazine staff correspondent, in last 25 years the population growth rate of Bangladesh came down to 1.6 per cent from 3 per cent. This is a major advancement; still the current population (126,000,000) has far exceeded to the capacity of the land (1,43,998 sq. km) and resources. I would also announce some great advantages and rewards for parents with only one child, which would benefit the entire family. It might seem quite expensive, but if we look at our long-term goal, we would save the resources of an extra child. Thus, fewer people will cause less pollution and would use up less of our resources. Also, smaller mass of people is easy to deal with in question of education, awareness and law enforcement.
One more project I would like to emphasize on is education. I would have Family Planing and Environmental Issue as a compulsory subject in both school and college level. So that, the citizens should at least know that the body spray they are using can initiate a step closer to skin cancer because of CFC gas. The knowledge would make them think about the nightmare of sharing the same two bedroom apartment with six brothers and sisters. They would start thinking critically about the trash we are producing. Their conscious would lead them to look for a substitution of environment pollution.
Mandatory recycling would be one of my main strategies. In theory 60 - 80% of our everyday trash could be recycled (Miller 371). The remaining waste and hazardous materials could be treated to reduce their toxicity (leftovers could be buried or burnt). There will be laws that every household plastic, aluminum, paper etc. must be recycled. Citizens will help separating them and the City Corporation will use them to produce more materials out of those. However the expenses of recycling could be covered the production of plastic, aluminum and paper; there would be surplus too. In industry level, besides the raw materials, the company would recycle the chemical itself.
I am very concerned about the use of plastic materials in our daily life. As soon as possible, I would put a stop on the production of plastic bag, ropes etc., and so will be replaced by jute (a natural fiber from a plant) materials. Bangladesh used to earn more than 75% of total foreign currency from exports of jute materials. Now the industry and framing is dying because of the "cheaper" substitution of plastic. I would do everything to bring jute merchandize back in global market. Thus it would aid our economy as well as environment in a greater sense.
Government must subsidize forestry and tree plantation in government and NGO (Non government organization) level. There must be strict restriction on destroying wild life with out proper authority. Also, necessary forest restoration and maintenance procedure must be implemented. I would suggest some extreme degree of punishment for poaching. The native people around the forest should be organized and be provided education and authority to maintain the wild life to receive benefits from it.
Saving energy is an important and effective way to reduce using, and to prevent wasting energy sources. Villagers could be introduced with the great benefits and convenience of bio gas plants, windmills, solar ponds, heat efficient cooking system, and other scientific ways. Bangladesh Government spends a good amount of money on genetics, genetically altered food, and all other experiments. I would shift those investments to productive development of energy efficiency systems (followed by all available energy efficient models throughout the whole world).
Air and water pollution must be reduced in cities and villages. Industries would be insisted on introducing necessary purification system and maintenance procedure to avoid serious air or water pollution. Their hazardous wastes should be disposed properly with the industry expense by law. Textile, leather etc. industries must be introduced to "Eco - Audit" system as was started in 29th June 1993 by the European Community (Sahid 02). It's objective was to promote the use of environmental auditing as a tool for the systematic and periodic evaluation of the environmental performance of central industries. In Bangladesh, it will be compulsory instead of making it voluntary. Motor vehicle exhaust pollution is very common in the cities. We would start mandatory use of catalytic converter in all vehicle exhaust system. There would be severe penalty for traffic violations especially pollution-related laws. Energy and gas efficient cars, like LCP (Light Component Project) invented by Volvo industry, should be introduced and encouraged (Wolf 97). Although it's expensive, in the long run it would save the economy and the environment. In fact, slowly all govt. vehicles would be replaced by them. Of course, we will not be able to afford such imported technology, but by govt. subsidization we could build an industry to make our own. Smoking will highly be restricted to certain spots. There will be high taxation on cigarettes, alcohol beverages etc.; it would automatically discourage people and the manufacturers to continue. As Bangladesh is a land of rivers, water transportation is an essential. Now a days the rivers are polluted severely everyday without any restoration. A scientific team would be assigned to study the quality of water, polluting sources, steps to be taken for reducing further pollution, procedure necessary to clean and treat water with other possible procedures. A large number of people are dependent on the water resource based occupation like fishing. Surprisingly Bangladesh fishers don't need a permit to fish. So, they fish almost everywhere and through out the whole year including the breeding season of fishes. Moreover, they use a special net called current net (it doesn’t spare even the tiny little fish) for fishing. So, I would initiate some laws to protect river resources by introducing fishing license, stopping fishing during the breeding season, banding current net fishing.
Bangladesh is an agricultural country. In order to grapple with environment degradation, in 1972 there was an International Conference meeting on Human Environment was held at Stockholm. As the report of the conventional protocols provided by Abdul Matin Khasm, MP (Member of Parliament), "Environment law plays a significant role in promoting environmental protection through (i) sustainable use of natural resources (ii) pollution prevention and (iii) the integration of environment and development". I don’t believe in pushing the growth yield on agricultural activities. We should meet the needs of the present generation with out compromising the needs of the future generation. We should concentrate on becoming self sufficient in agricultural production than to stress the lands to export the surplus. Without the presence of govt. subsidy Bangladesh increased the export of fresh vegetables in European market from 14.5 million USD (1995 – 96) to 29.48 million USD (1997-98) (Mahmud 25). Still we are importing lots of daily commodities including our staple food rice. Govt. must take action to become self-sufficient and to keep a balance between necessity and production. Pesticides should be restricted. The farmers need to be licensed (go through a cost free safe and efficient pesticides handling procedure and use training) to buy or to use pesticides.
Flood is the deadly natural disaster we have. There are lots of direct and relative reasons for catastrophic flood. Still, the one main reason is "Farakka" dam, which is built by India violating the global law of natural flow of water. They close the gates to hold water during the dry season for their irrigation. As the lower part of the flow, we are completely dry and our cultivation is badly harmed. Moreover, lack of current builds sediment under the river and the rivers lose the regular water holding capacity. During the rainy season India opens the gates of dam and our rivers overflow and flood most of our lands. United Nations tried to solve the problem quite a few times. India refused to compromise. I would rather die fighting a war against such restraint than to accept a humiliating and gradual death. So, my strategy will be to solve the situation even if it takes a war. If we loose, our proud bodies would al least make good compost for out motherland.
There is no end of the struggle for existence. In ancient time people started inventing technology to survive. Now that technology is the threat to our existence. Doesn’t matter whether our dreams will come true, we must try to work as a team to overcome the crisis. Thus saving the environment is not a concern of a Bangladeshi or an American, but a concern of humanity as a whole.
