Current growth ruining public health, nature: Experts 

Highlights 

• Bangladesh ranked 162th out of 180 countries on Environmental Performance Index 2020
• Air, water pollution cause nearly 28% of all deaths
• Pollution is a major threat to industrial competitiveness
• Covid amplified environmental externalities

The current economic growth is causing environmental degradation, resulting in negative health impacts and loss of natural resources, experts said. 

Though the country has various policies and rules aimed at protecting the environment, a lack of implementation is a major problem, they said at a webinar on "Building back a greener Bangladesh" organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) in collaboration with the World Bank Group (WBG) on Sunday.  

The speakers also pointed out the absence of coordination, monitoring, transparency and accountability in making the rules and policies serve the purpose. They insisted on formulating an environment-friendly green development model for Bangladesh.  

Evidence shows that the quality of the environment has deteriorated after the pandemic broke out in the country. 

Covid amplified environmental externalities, said Eun Joo Yi, senior environmental specialist at the WBG, adding that the government had introduced a stimulus programme to provide relief and recovery support to industries and households, but it had not considered ensuring green recovery. 

The Global Competitiveness Report 2019 identified environmental pollution as a major emerging threat to industrial competitiveness in Bangladesh. 

Eun Joo Yi said the inability to enforce environmental safeguards and abate pollution created challenges to meet stricter compliance requirements for domestic and international markets.   

She cited South Korea's green stimulus that included mitigation of climate change and energy independence, creating new engines for economic growth and improvement in the quality of life.  

Dr Mohammad Tamim, former advisor to the caretaker government of Bangladesh, said the country's success model stood on polluting developmental works. 

"It is actually not an easy task for a country like Bangladesh to go green like South Korea as it is the 10th largest economy in the world. We cannot have the models being followed by the developed countries to green up their energy right now." 

Bangladesh is committed to green development and its green model has to be developed locally, Tamim said. 

Ainun Nishat, professor emeritus of BRAC University, said, "We are not following any greener path. According to our constitution, the country has to be managed in an environmentally sound manner. We have many excellent documents such as strategies, plan, programmes and laws. But is there any implementation or monitoring?"

Dr. Atiur Rahman, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, suggested setting up a "green window" at the finance ministry to initiate green development.  

Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director, Apex Footwear Limited, said, "We have a 10% special income tax rate applicable to only green buildings in the RMG sector, which has borne good results as we have seen. NBR [National Board of Revenue] should extend this facility to all sectors." 

Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, executive director at the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), said Bangladesh's economy advanced and would continue to grow in future but the path of development must be green, environment friendly so that "we can leave a prosperous country to the next generations". 

About 24% of the deaths occur due to health problems caused by pollution. "We have to work in coordination with the global communities to avoid such man-made threats. Alongside adaptation to climate change, we have to focus on mitigation by bringing down carbon emission," Ahsan said. 

He said that the environment ministry is a weak ministry lacking capacity. 

The Department of Environment is responsible for enforcing laws relating to the environment but there is no transparency in preparing the reports of inspection, Ahsan added. 

Mizan R Khan, deputy director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said growth without ensuring quality of life was not significant.