PM's grave concern at environmental degradation

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said her government is concerned at the rapid environmental degradation in urban areas and is taking measures to stop migration of rural people to cities to check it.

"Protecting the environment in this populous country is a very urgent issue. Otherwise, people will be affected by degradation of environment," she said.

The Prime Minister was inaugurating a two-day International Conference on Bangladesh Environment (ICBEN) at the Osmani Memorial Hall in the city yesterday.

She said everything was centralised in Dhaka during military rule and population pressure started to mount.

The conference has been jointly organised by as many as 70 organisations including POROSH, Bangladesh Environment Network, Bangladesh Engineering University and the Coalition of Environment NGOs.

Sheikh Hasina said her government has taken measures to rehabilitate city slum dwellers in rural areas. Allowances for elderly people, widows and distressed women have been introduced and employment opportunities are being created in rural areas to reduce migration to urban areas, she said.

"Unplanned urbanisation and indiscriminate growth of hospitals and clinics without facilities for waste disposal have contributed to environmental degradation," the Prime Minister said. "In fact, environment degradation is the effect of our desired industrialisation of the economy."

A large number of people including non-resident Bangladeshis and foreign experts attended the inaugural session to bolster the environment-protection efforts in the country.

Minister for Environment and Forests Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury attended the inaugural session as special guest.

BUET Vice-Chancellor and Convener of the Conference Organising Committee Prof Nooruddin Ahmed, BUET Professor Zamilur Reza Chowdhury, formet VC of Jahangirnagar University Prof Amirul Islam, Khushi Kabir of Nijera Kori (an NGO) and Prof Nazrul Islam of Emory University of USA also spoke at the inaugural session. Chairman of POROSH former finance minister AMA Muhith presided.

In her speech, Sajeda Chowdhury appealed to developed countries to come forward to protect the environment. "Responsibility of the developed world is more than that of the developing countries to protect the environment," she said.

Prof Nazrul Islam said, with access to improved communication systems, more and more Bangladeshis are actively participating in environment-protection efforts in different foreign countries.

Technical sessions of the conference are being held at the BUET auditorium and will conclude today.

The Prime Minister also called upon all concerned to come forward to assist the environment production programmes in the country.

"It' is our firm conviction that if we work together, we will be able to face the challenge," she said.

"We have also taken step to strengthen the local government system for the benefit of rural people. If we could complete the local government elections, economic activities would be accelerated in rural areas," she said.

The Prime Minister listed the projects taken up by the government for protecting the environment. These include Sustainable Environment Management Project and Air Quality Management Project.

Moreover, a 20-year-long master plan has been adopted to ensure 20 per cent forestry coverage in this country. "We have formulated Environment (Preservation) Law 1997 to prevent degradation of environment," she said.

The government is implementing programmes for countrywide afforestation, management of environment and wildlife and conservation of bio-diversity in line with world environment system to meet the growing demand for forest resources.

Already remarkable success has been achieved in conservation and management of environment through implementation of a number of projects, Hasina said.

More than 29 thousand hectares of land have been brought under afforestation and over 10 thousand kilometres under strip forest in last three years.

The Prime Minister said her government has ensured supply of lead-free fuel since last July and increased use of compressed natural gas which is an environment-friendly fuel.

About 21,000 tons of LP gas is being produced annually to increase supply of the cooking gas as alternative to firewood, she said.

Turning to a grim feature of Bangladesh's ecology, Prime Minister Hasina admitted that rivers and tributaries were gradually getting contaminated and also drying up. "From the severity of floods in 1998 we realised that we should not allow filling up of rivers and water reservoirs."