| Promote the Public Health
Air and water pollution coupled with human encroachment in
Bangladesh's forests are destroying flora and fauna and endangering
the country's long-term economic sustainability, warn environment
experts.
A World Bank study estimates that at least 15,000 people have died
of diseases caused by air pollution in four major cities — Dhaka,
Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi -- and an estimated 6.5 million
people suffer from acute respiratory infections. The Asian
Development Bank puts the economic cost of such deaths and illnesses
at US $800 million a year.
According to the Department of Fisheries, as many as eight species
of fishes have become extinct and the existence of nearly 42 species
is threatened in Bangladesh's rivers due to pollution, the loss of
habitat and excessive fishing.
In the last century, five out of 650 bird species in Bangladesh were
wiped out, and many fear the rate of extinction will accelerate in
the years to come, especially because of the loss of habitat.
In and around Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, the Environment Department
found nearly zero levels of oxygen in the rivers Buriganga,
Shitalakhya and Turag in recent times.
According to the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authorities, the ground
water table -- the source of drinking water for one third of this
city's 10 million people -- has become contaminated with harmful
bacteria.
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