We have poisoned the air, the water and the land. In our passion to dominate nature, things have gone out of control. Progress from now on has to mean something different if we really want to avoid disaster. We cannot keep up using one place and moving on to the next because our planet earth is very small to accommodate the increasing human ocean. We are running out of land; we are running out of resources and obviously running out of time. For many people, and for many species, it has already happened.

My own involvement started before I knew it, growing up in my village home in Comilla and latter, in Kalabagan at Dhaka. The places were beautiful then having few people moving around. I watched for nearly the last fifty years as the green, open spaces turned now into concrete houses, paved roads and markets; and the clean air turned into poisonous air. In 1950s and even early '60s, the road from New Market to Mirpur was semi-paved. Surrounding Azimpur, Nilkhet, Dhanmondi, Elephant road, Kathalbagan, Kalabagan, Sobhanbagh, Lalmatia and so on were barren, scattered ponds, ditches and rice fields.

The present Sangsad Bhavan, Khejurbagan, Khamarbari, Bangladesh-China Maitri Hall, Planning Commission buildings and Suhrawardi Hospital complex was our 500 acres Dhaka farm. The Dhaka Cantonment was isolated but linked by narrow paved road with Tejgaon old airport.

I remember greeting H.S. Suhrawardi when he arrived in Dhaka from Karachi loosing the honour of premiership. The next day, I remember students' protest march headed by Mawlana Bhasani to the Secretariat and unnecessary pelting of stones by a section of students at USIS, north to the aforesaid building complex and Press Club. The year was 1956.

Now the scenario is completely different. The places where there were little or no human habitation such as Malibagh, Khilgaon, Rampura, Chaudhuripara, Shahjahanpur, Shantibagh, Rajarbagh, and even Shantinagar-Baily Road area have turned into congested concrete buildings, jam packed roads full of transport and human waves.

Like most people in my generation, I was brought up to believe in progress. I still do. But now we are at a point where we have to ask ourselves if we are the beneficiaries of our progress, or victims. We have extended our civilised society, modern buildings up to Joydebpur in the north, up to Savar-Ashulia in the west, beyond prestigious and historically important Buriganga River in the south, and up to Meghna Bridge in the east, heading from Syedabad, Jatrabari, Jurain, DND and Kanchpur.

If we extend our eyes beyond Dhaka, we see the same change in every division, district and upazila. Our population now approximates 140 million, which was 35 million just fifty years ago. Not to speak of the earth, the land of our parents and ours is at risk as never before because of over population and indiscriminate exploitation of our limited natural resources.

World's leading scientists and environmental experts have provided an overview of the continuing pressures on our ecosystem for the vast over-populated country of ours. Scientists tell us that by the next century, the environmental struggles will be lost, by that time it may be too late. We must bear in mind that we cannot continue to satisfy our own needs at the expense of those of future generations.

Downstream flooding is the consequence in Bangladesh when most of the country goes under water -- beginning from 1954, then several times up to l988 when almost half of the country was totally submerged for nearly three weeks, and this occurred more frequently in recent times. According to the best guess of the Inter-Governmental Panel of Climate Change, the global average temperature is likely to rise at least 1.8 F (1 C) by the year 2030 due to global warming. As a result, sea levels will rise from anywhere between 4 inches and 6 feet (ten centimeters and two meters). Low-lying coastal areas would be wiped out of the map. A sea level rise of 3 feet (1 meter) would flood 770 square miles (2000 sq. kilometers) of low-lying coastal Bangladesh, which is desperately impoverished and overpopulated. The overpopulated capital, Dhaka city, is being threatened almost every year by water logging, flood, contamination of drinking water, water scarcity and other political and social upheaval.

The publication of Brundtland Report, Our Common Future in 1987, first brought the world attention to the fundamental concepts of Sustainable Development and Save the World. Since then, the Rio conference in 1992 and many other national and international forums related to the world environment took place and is likely to continue in the future. Awareness is, perhaps, no longer the issue. Even our children know more about environment than their parents do. This is obviously good. But the problem lies with the leadership. We cannot wait for leadership on environmental issues to come from the top -- it is not going to happen.

The past decade has made that clear. The most important step we can take is to send a clear message to our leaders that if they don't protect the environment, they will not get elected. Political leaders must learn to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the environment without delay, and forcefully if needed. Since Bangladesh came into being in 1971, the national highways extended from east to west, north to south, but the wetlands have been disrupted and wetland biodiversity has been shattered.

The concept of sustainable development and environmental impact assessment came lately, though sometimes to be altered by motivated powers as and when wished. This represents an astonishing lack of both vision and common sense. Most of the technologies that will ensure a dignified and secure future for each and every one of us are already in existence or are being developed. We need to listen what is being said and do the best only for the betterment of the future.

Our country is one of the world's poorest. Land and water as well as food are under constant pressure from a growing population. Over the last four decades demand for food has nearly tripled, spurred by population growth and rising affluence. This rising demand for food has forced the farmers to indiscriminate use of inorganic fertilisers and pesticides. We are already paying some of the ecological costs of imposing Western-style intensive agriculture where they are quite inappropriate. Some scientists hope to boost crop yields through genetic engineering, but it is not certain that this approach will be successful. There is little new land that can be brought under production. Moreover, construction of towns and highways chip away the crop lands base every year.

Forest areas are declining mainly as a result of over population and corruption. The responsibility for this lies largely with the government who fail to promote land reform and sustainable agricultural practices as an alternative to forest clearance. The government cannot take drastic action to control corrupt practices prevalent in almost every component of machineries because of party affiliation, whoever there is in power. The government for the sake of the country must declare deforestation a national emergency.

The flowers we grow in the garden, and the fruits and vegetables that we eat were all originally derived from wild species. The government must therefore, place priority on natural forest conservation. Strict observation of plantation campaign will not benefit the nation unless millions of saplings planted every year are managed and kept alive. Groups of plant species must be selected for plantation along different roads and besides waterways to facilitate conservation of biodiversity. We should be aware that extinction of one plant species could cause 30 extinctions of other dependent organisms necessary to maintain ecological balance.

The population explosion has already happened in Bangladesh. We must fix the clock now to maintain a stable population by reducing the birth rate to equal the death rate. Meeting the growing demand for education and family planning among women can only do this. The preferred model is the nuclear family with two children, which results in a stable population. The present growth rate must be reduced even through enforcement of law. The example may easily be set by pointing to nearly one million government employees to follow the model of two children in one family. If that is ignored, there will remain no scope for promotion to next higher position and after 25 years of service compulsory retirement should necessarily be ensured. The present concept of the poor families with many children having extra hands to bring in food and income must be stopped.

While less than 10 per cent of the country's population was living in cities 40-50 years back, these areas are now inhabiting nearly 25 per cent. Slums along the railway line, some vacant roadsides, besides parks, embankments, culverts and barren lands are the few but several symptoms of growing urbanisation. Rural families are driven from their homes by flood, landlessness, unemployment, and even by political unrest. The environmental fallout from this process of urbanisation has been devastating -- creating various social problems, adding chronic problems of air and water pollution, sewage blockage, congested road and so on.

The only way of dealing with these problems is to make a virtue of them. Politicians and civil servants of today must know that there will be new leaders tomorrow to assess their activities. The scenario will be completely different from the traditional politicians and technocrats. Today's insincerity is likely to play a positive role for tomorrow's failure and repentance.

Whoever in power must regard the national problem their own. Our leadership right now seems to be without plans even for one generation. Banning use of polyethylene and keeping pollutant road transports out of urban areas are appreciable. Much more needs to be done. Action must begin from today to control noise pollution. The baton has to be passed from the scientists to the public, and then it must be translated into political and legislative action. The first two steps have already occurred -- now it is time for the third.

We can never go back to our past to find vacant places around and the placid landscapes of our forefathers, and march to secretariat buildings through uncongested road. This can never happen again. If our children and grandchildren learn to live a healthy life, see the rivers and wetlands in harmony and full of biosphere reserve, do not experience the frequent tragedies of floods, see suitable traffic management everywhere, don't be afraid of becoming environmental refugees because of global warming and sea level rise in future, get well managed cities and homesteads with cheaper and healthier provision of basic services and natural landscapes, we will surely remain contented in the houses we live now at this stage of our old age.