Air pollution is indubitably one of the most pressing issues gripping our urban citizens, most notably in our capital Dhaka -- a city whose air quality consistently tops the ranking of worst air in the world in accordance with the air quality index.
However, alongside the announcement of a new extension to the National Information and Service Helpline to launch complaints related to the environment, the recent directive from the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister towards the careful implementation of the Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) project perhaps offers some semblance of hope in repairing the damage that our unchecked urbanization has dealt to the environment.
BEST concerns five key components which aim to strengthen environmental governance, improve air quality management, improve water quality management, bolster plastics and waste management, and vigorous project management -- this is the sort of comprehensiveness that we require, given the sheer levels of degradation that our environment has undergone in the past few decades.
Regarding any and all initiatives concerning the environment, oversight and monitoring are of utmost importance, and while it is codified as one of the key components of BEST, misappropriation of funds from large-scale public projects is not unprecedented in Bangladesh. Bureaucracy and corruption have almost always reared their ugly heads in such cases, which is why it befalls on the government and relevant stakeholders to make sure that stringent policies are placed, alongside strict monitoring, so that this project does not share such a fate.
Bangladesh’s status as a developing nation does not have to go against its environmental ambitions, in fact development is at its most holistic when it takes environmental integrity into consideration -- after all, some of the most liveable developed cities are the ones where concrete and greenery live side by side.
However, alongside the announcement of a new extension to the National Information and Service Helpline to launch complaints related to the environment, the recent directive from the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister towards the careful implementation of the Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) project perhaps offers some semblance of hope in repairing the damage that our unchecked urbanization has dealt to the environment.
BEST concerns five key components which aim to strengthen environmental governance, improve air quality management, improve water quality management, bolster plastics and waste management, and vigorous project management -- this is the sort of comprehensiveness that we require, given the sheer levels of degradation that our environment has undergone in the past few decades.
Regarding any and all initiatives concerning the environment, oversight and monitoring are of utmost importance, and while it is codified as one of the key components of BEST, misappropriation of funds from large-scale public projects is not unprecedented in Bangladesh. Bureaucracy and corruption have almost always reared their ugly heads in such cases, which is why it befalls on the government and relevant stakeholders to make sure that stringent policies are placed, alongside strict monitoring, so that this project does not share such a fate.
Bangladesh’s status as a developing nation does not have to go against its environmental ambitions, in fact development is at its most holistic when it takes environmental integrity into consideration -- after all, some of the most liveable developed cities are the ones where concrete and greenery live side by side.