Dev projects could harm Sundarbans

The Sundarbans may be destroyed if unplanned development in the southwestern region follows the opening of the Padma Bridge, noted climate change expert Dr Saleemul Huq said yesterday. 

“We are now at a critical point when we are building a bridge from Dhaka to the southwestern part of the country, connecting Khulna through the Padma Bridge.

“Once the bridge is constructed, you will see a lot of development in Khulna region, which is a good thing. But, if we see the bad kind of development, that’s going to destroy the Sundarbans; that is a bad thing,” he said.

Huq made the remarks during a session on “Coast and communities: A new framework for prosperity and resilience” on the second day of the three-day Dhaka Global Dialogue organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies and Observer Research Foundation at the hotel InterContinental Dhaka.

The director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Independent University Bangladesh, also said the Bangladesh government needed to immediately make comprehensive plans to address the issue.

“If we don’t have regulations and policy, and more importantly, [if we do not] implement them, then we will end up destroying the Sundarbans. And I am very, very scared about that,” he said.

Huq said the Sundarbans was a world heritage site and “we all have a responsibility to preserve it. 

“One of the things we need to be thinking about is how to build the infrastructure that we need,” he said, emphasising on nature-based solutions or green development. 

He said the economic development in the country was good, but it had come at a cost to the environment. 

“We cannot continue to let that happen,” he said.

SM Daud Hassan, director of the International Centre for Ocean Governance, Western Sydney University, said while the oceans held huge potential for development, there should be rules and regulations -- both at national and regional levels -- to make sure the oceans were not polluted.