Monday, April 29, 2024
Bangladesh faces alarming levels of environmental pollution, which can cause health risks that disproportionately harm the most vulnerable people – the lower class, children under 5, the elderly and women, according to a new World Bank report.
The Bangladesh Country Environmental Analysis has found that air pollution, unsafe water, poor sanitation, hygiene, and lead exposure cause over 2,72,000 premature deaths and 5.2 billion days of illness annually.
These environmental costs were equivalent to 17.6 per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP in 2019.
Household and outdoor air pollution have the most detrimental effect on health, leading to nearly 55 per cent of premature deaths, which alone cost 8.32 per cent of GDP in 2019.
“For Bangladesh, addressing environmental risks is both a development and an economic priority. We have seen around the world that when economic growth comes at the cost of the environment, it cannot be sustained. But it is possible to grow cleaner and greener without growing slower,” said Abdoulaye Seck, country director for Bhutan and Bangladesh.
“To sustain its strong growth path and improve the liveability of cities and the countryside, Bangladesh simply cannot afford to ignore the environment. Preventing environmental degradation and ensuring climate resilience is critical to staying on a strong growth path and achieving the country’s vision of becoming an upper-middle-income country,” he said.
The analysis said that environmental pollution is taking a heavy toll on children. Lead poisoning is causing irreversible damage to children’s brain, resulting in an estimated annual loss of nearly 20 million IQ points.
Household emissions from cooking with solid fuels are a major source of air pollution which affects women and children.
It said that the country’s major rivers have experienced a severe decline in water quality due to industrial discharge and unmanaged waste, including plastics and untreated sewage, among other sources.
Timely and urgent interventions for air pollution control, improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and control of lead exposure could prevent over 1,33,000 premature deaths per year, it added. Investments in cleaner power generation, clean cooking fuels, and stricter controls on industrial emissions can help reduce air pollution.
“With the right set of policies and actions, Bangladesh can reverse its environmental degradation trend,” said World Bank Senior Environmental Specialist and the report’s co-author Ana Luisa Gomes Lima.
“Strengthening and enforcing environmental regulations, coupled with investments and other incentives for clean cooking, scaling up green financing, setting up efficient carbon markets, and raising awareness, can help reduce pollution and achieve green growth in Bangladesh,” she said.
The report identified environmental priorities, assesses interventions, and includes recommendations to strengthen governance and institutional capacity for environmental management.
Bangladesh can protect its environment by setting evidence-based priorities, diversifying and strengthening environmental policy instruments, strengthening institutional capacity, and building an enabling environment for green financing, it said.
