[🇧🇩] Save the Rivers/Forests/Hills-----Save the Environment

[Saif]

Election season and the strain on urban environment

But it also has a less discussed footprint: plastic flex, laminated posters, strings, tapes, and broken frames t

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Election season and the strain on urban environment

8 February 2026, 01:52 AM
Shaikh Afnan Birahim

Election season in Bangladesh has a recognisable soundtrack and palette: loudspeakers, processions, and streets dressed in political colours. But it also has a less discussed footprint: plastic flex, laminated posters, strings, tapes, and broken frames that quietly outlast the speeches and slogans. What begins as “visibility” often ends up as waste, and that waste travels down to gutters, roadside drains, canal edges, and culvert mouths. Then, even modest rainfall can result in avoidable waterlogging. The election ends in a day, but the mess lingers for months.

The rules for this upcoming election are, on paper, stricter than before. The Election Commission has banned electioneering posters and tightened controls on banners in its code of conduct, with campaigning set to end 48 hours before polling. There have even been directives telling printing presses not to print election posters. Yet the hard truth is, rules alone do not keep drains clear; operational discipline does.

In the months leading up to an election, campaign materials—designed to withstand the weather—mushroom rapidly. Plastic-coated surfaces and flex banners endure rain and remain readable, which is precisely why they become dangerous once obsolete. Instead of breaking down, they fragment and move with the wind. Environmental experts have long warned that plastic-based campaign materials clog drains and waterways, becoming an environmental hazard.

In Dhaka, posters and flyers have continued to appear even as restrictions were strengthened. When enforcement is inconsistent, the cost of non-compliance feels low in the moment, and the volume of material grows. This matters because “a little extra” clutter refuses to stay as an aesthetic problem; it also becomes a source of blockages in drains and pipes.

The removal phase is also poorly enforced as urgency fades after the polling day. As the materials are often installed without clear responsibility for their removal, the city corporations inherit the burden while citizens inherit the inconvenience.

Urban flooding is usually a choreography of small failures—blocked grates, narrowed culverts, silt, and unmanaged solid waste. When campaign debris enters the system, it behaves like a net. It catches other garbage, slows flow, and creates chokepoints precisely where water needs to escape. The World Bank has noted how mismanaged plastic waste clogs drains and contributes to urban flooding. This is why election-season waterlogging can occur even without heavy rain: the blockage builds up out of sight and flooding suddenly appears at intersections and culvert mouths.

A report on post-election poster waste described how large volumes end up in landfills and are sometimes burned, polluting surrounding areas. Burning plastic clears drains but pollutes the air, and careless dumping just moves the waste from streets to rivers and landfills.

So, what can realistically be done this election season without turning the issue into a political fight?

The starting point is simple: drain protection must be treated as an essential service during polls. City corporations and local administration should identify high-risk drainage hotspots such as major intersections, low-lying wards, culvert mouths, and canal edges and carry out extensive clearing drives during and after election week. The aim is to prevent chokepoints from turning minor rainfall into flooding.

This effort should be paired with a strict enforcement of “no-material zones.” Sewers, canal edges, culvert mouths, bridge underpasses, and median gaps should be treated as zero-tolerance areas, not for political reasons, but because these are precisely the locations where a single torn banner can trigger a chain reaction of blockages.

Temporary waste collection points should also be established in densely populated areas. Election waste spikes at predictable locations such as meeting venues, busy intersections, and main corridors. Simple bins or collection cages, cleared out daily, are low-cost but effective measures to prevent loose campaign materials from being swept into gutters.

Planning for the aftermath is equally important. A post-election clean-up calendar should be announced in advance. Authorities should specify a short window for removal, identify the lead agency, and provide a clear channel for reporting problem areas.

Finally, disposal practices must be addressed. Collected campaign plastics should be transported to approved sites rather than burned in open spaces. Alongside this, communication should be treated as infrastructure: short, repeated messages such as “Do not block drains” and “Remove materials after polling” can meaningfully influence behaviour.

Bangladesh has an opportunity this election season to prevent waste-related plights for citizens. The poster ban, directives to printing presses, and tighter code-of-conduct provisions show that policymakers recognise the civic cost of campaign clutter. What remains to be seen is execution on the ground: keeping drains clear, enforcing smart no-go zones, and cleaning up promptly after polling day.

Shaikh Afnan Birahim is a postgraduate student of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow.​

 

[Saif]

Saving Sundarbans from disintegration

That a number of environmental organisations have been observing the Sundarbans Day each year on February 14 since 2001 is not widely known. The reason for this is the limited publicity the day's observance receives with the government yet to recognise the day officially. So, the environmental grou

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Saving Sundarbans from disintegration

FE
Published :
Feb 16, 2026 23:13
Updated :
Feb 16, 2026 23:13

That a number of environmental organisations have been observing the Sundarbans Day each year on February 14 since 2001 is not widely known. The reason for this is the limited publicity the day's observance receives with the government yet to recognise the day officially. So, the environmental groups arrange the observance in coastal districts such as Khulna and Bagerhat. This is surprising that successive governments have failed to find merit in designating it as a national day for so long. Even the British rulers declared the forest government property as early as 1817. Even the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans received the UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) recognition as a world heritage site 10 years later in 1997 than the Indian site's recognition. But the Bangladesh part of the forest is larger with roughly 60 per cent of the world's largest mangrove forest.

The official apathy towards conservation of not only the Sundarbans alone but also other forests and ancient relics is entrenched in the mindset of those in charge of saving the heritages. Overexploitation of forest resources and leaving open the cargo routes close to the mangrove have combined together to pose a serious threat. There are incidents of cargo vessels and oil tankers sinking in the neighbouring river and the subsequent oil spill causing environmental pollution. Add to this the use of poisonous bait for fishing, the picture that unfolds is really nightmarish. Yet another problem that has been recurring in recent times is the forest fire. The manpower now engaged in keeping vigilance over such illegal activities including poaching seems to be inadequate. Also, people without orientation for Nature may not do their job well. The foresters who are posted for the job of conservation must be passionate about their protective role.

In fact, under the British rule, the seed of conservation of the mangrove was laid when it was recognised a government-protected forest early in the 19th century. Now that environmental groups are numerous, the issue of the forest's conservation should have received the official recognition. The status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site will disintegrate if stringent protective measures are not taken immediately. With a smaller share of the forest, the tigers in the Indian side are well taken care of. This is clear from the tiger census that found a larger number of tigers inhabiting there.

Now some environmental and research organisations have announced that a three-day Sundarbans summit would be held from April 23 points to the fact that such entities are taking the conservation issue seriously. The Sundarbans has been protecting the coastal belt in the country's south and west, now is the time to save that forest against the backdrop of climate change. Disintegration and disappearance of the Sunderbans will not only seriously affect that coastal belt but also the entire country. Against cyclones and tidal bores, the forest has acted as the first line of defence. If that defence crumbles, any cyclone of Sidr or Aila's order will lay waste to a significant portion of the mainland Bangladesh. Also, the loss of $55 billion the forest contributes to the economy and livelihoods of 3.5 million to 5.0 million people will prove devastating. Let the conference be successful in drawing attention to the critical need for protection of the Sundarbans in a method based on advanced science and technology.​

 

[Saif]

Climate actions need less talk, more work

A lesson emerging from COP participation is that for advocacy to deliver results, it must be married to strategy.

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Climate actions need less talk, more work
25 February 2026, 00:00 AM
Hossain Zillur Rahman and Namira Shameem

‘A lesson emerging from COP participation is that for advocacy to deliver results, it must be married to strategy.’ FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

At a recent climate adda hosted by the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), participants including COP30 returnees, local youth climate activists, researchers, engineers, and policy thinkers gathered to reflect on the COP experience and draw lessons on how climate engagement can be meaningfully taken forward. What emerged from the discussion was neither cynicism nor grand wisdom, but a healthy dose of clarity.

Participants of the Belem COP convening spoke of a sense of impasse that masked a crisis of language and power, and of a negotiation landscape increasingly shaped by ambiguity. Wealthy nations continue to dilute commitments through carefully crafted language. “Phase out” becomes “transition away.” Timelines become “pathways.” Responsibilities become “shared aspirations.”

The COP28 Dubai declaration’s reference to transitioning away from fossil fuels was welcomed globally. But without binding mechanisms and clarity on financing, such phrases risk becoming diplomatic poetry. The questions remain: how will funds be mobilised? Who will pay? And under what accountability structure?

Bangladesh, despite being one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, still struggles with consistent representation in these global rooms. Its delegations often lack institutional memory due to bureaucratic turnover. Critical thematic areas such as gender, just transition, and sexual and reproductive health rights frequently lack specialised negotiators. That weakens our ability to shape definitions before they are finalised. At the same time, fossil fuel lobbyists—numbering in the thousands at recent summits—continue to influence outcomes. If COP processes are to succeed, a support constituency hitherto less in focus for Global South activists must become central to engagement—namely, the citizenry of developed countries. Without domestic political pressure in the Global North, international climate agreements will continue to stall.

Looking domestically, there is progress, but it is episodic and fragmented. The whole has yet to become greater than the sum of its parts. But we must acknowledge that Bangladesh is not standing still. Youth engagement has increased markedly in recent years. Climate discussions have also entered school curricula. Media coverage has expanded. Solar expansion is visible. Local innovation is happening. Yet, something remains disconnected. Policies exist in abundance, as do strategies, frameworks, action plans, and adaptation blueprints. But implementation continues to lag. Communities often see seminars, but not solutions. The gap between “bags of documents” and lived experience persists.

Another crucial missing element is data. Participants in the climate adda spoke candidly about the lack of reliable, standardised climate data repositories. In some cases, data are apparently manipulated to strengthen funding appeals. While this may bring short-term relief, it erodes scientific credibility in global negotiations. A country that cannot present transparent, validated evidence weakens its moral and technical standing. If climate justice is our demand, data integrity must be our discipline.

There is another problem, too: the tokenistic inclusion of youth. Bangladesh frequently celebrates youth participation, but effective inclusion remains uneven. Climate-vulnerable youth—particularly those from coastal belts, char areas, and agrarian communities—are often absent from policy rooms. Urban-based advocacy networks sometimes operate in silos. Multiple youth platforms exist, yet coordination is limited. Collaboration is episodic rather than institutionalised.

The adda highlighted an important shift in thinking: youth engagement must move from participation to co-design. Young climate leaders do not simply want seats at the table; they want roles in shaping funding models, piloting innovations, and designing accountability frameworks.

While the discussion was informal in spirit, there was surprising consensus on several interlinked priorities for the country going forward. The first is partnership and collaboration. The youth present in the room brought forward an important conclusion: horizontal linkages between organisations must replace siloed activism. Universities, think tanks, grassroots groups, engineers, agricultural innovators, and policy advocates must operate within shared frameworks, rather than in parallel spaces.

The second priority concerns solutions and innovation. The discourse must pivot from problem-recitation to solution-scaling. Bangladesh already hosts grassroots adaptive practices: climate-resilient agriculture, floating cultivation, localised construction innovations, etc. But they remain scattered. As one participant observed, many grassroots communities have adapted ingeniously, but there is no systematic consolidation of these practices. Pilot, document, evaluate, scale—that must become the model.

The third priority relates to governance and transparency. Climate finance is flowing globally, but fund utilisation remains opaque. Greenwashing is under increasing scrutiny. The adda participants proposed mechanisms such as dedicating a percentage of corporate social responsibility funds to structured climate risk pools. Governance systems must ensure that resources reach communities efficiently and transparently.

The fourth priority is capacity-building. Leadership development cannot remain confined to conference circuits. Technical skills—data management, climate modelling, resilient engineering—must reach vulnerable districts. Bureaucratic reshuffles often derail institutional continuity; capacity must therefore be distributed, not centralised.

Data and knowledge infrastructure are also central if climate engagement is to gain serious traction. A standardised, validated climate data network, potentially community-based, holds great promise. It is not enough just to produce data; evidence must be untampered, accessible, and policy-relevant. Without credible data, both domestic policy and international negotiating positions get weakened.

A lesson emerging from COP participation is that for advocacy to deliver results, it must be married to strategy. Advocacy must move beyond statements and hashtags to link knowledge with policy pathways. It must connect with civil society actors in the Global North to create transnational pressure. It must also translate technical climate debates into electoral issues within Bangladesh.

The discussion challenged the conventional framing of climate vulnerability. Bangladesh’s climate discourse often centres almost exclusively on coastal and char regions. Yet, vulnerable inland locations and our expanding urban centres constitute a new climate vulnerability map. Air quality, heat stress, and waterlogging—these must enter the climate conversation. Climate resilience is not only about embankments; it is also about urban governance, agricultural systems, labour transitions, and educational reform.

The PPRC adda resisted simplistic binaries. The private sector is often treated solely as a polluter or adversary. But small-scale farmers, entrepreneurs, and even engineering firms are potential partners in innovation and financing. Structured engagement, rather than suspicion alone, could unlock scalable solutions.

Perhaps the most important ingredient of the solution is commitment—to produce “schools of practice” rather than merely convening talk shops. A new generation of climate-literate youth, unwilling to accept symbolic inclusion, represents a potential force for shifting the country from reactive vulnerability to proactive resilience. Whether the global climate architecture remains fragmented, regional coordination weak, international finance politically entangled, or domestic implementation constrained by bureaucratic inertia, it is crucial to empower young people to co-design climate actions grounded in lived realities. We cannot allow the next COP communiqué to become just another document in the bag.

Namira Shameem is senior research associate at the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC).

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman is executive chairman at the PPRC.​

 

[Saif]

How Bangladesh can turn canal excavation into an environmental win

For thousands of years, the delta of Bengal has been defined by its intricate relationship with water. This was never a purely natural phenomenon;

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How Bangladesh can turn canal excavation into an environmental win

27 February 2026, 00:27 AM
Ashraf Dewan and Mo Hoque

The Subhadya Canal in Keraniganj, Dhaka is one of many across Bangladesh that are on the verge of dying and are in desperate need of excavation to restore water flow. PHOTO: RASHED SHUMON

For thousands of years, the delta of Bengal has been defined by its intricate relationship with water. This was never a purely natural phenomenon; it was a sophisticated feat of hydraulic engineering. Ancient “overflow irrigation” systems, influenced by Egyptian water engineering techniques, once allowed our ancestors to manage the rhythmic pulse of the delta. These engineered waterways—such as the Mathabhanga, often mistaken for a natural river—were designed to manure the fields with nutrient-rich silt while providing a dependable lifeline for rural settlements.

For nearly three millennia, these waterways provided dependable water supplies, boosted agricultural productivity, and supported rural livelihoods. In recent decades, however, rapid population growth, lack of maintenance, and unplanned development have pushed many rivers and canals in Bangladesh into severe decline. As channels silt up, dry out, or become encroached upon, the country’s environmental stability falls increasingly at risk. Our own research using satellite-based night-light data shows how the loss of floodplains is directly linked to rising flood vulnerability across the country.

This concern is not new. In the late 1970s, the then President Ziaur Rahman recognised the danger posed by deteriorating waterways and launched a nationwide canal restoration programme. Between 1977 and 1981, nearly 2,000 miles of canals (an estimated 1,500 of them) were excavated or re-excavated, revitalising rural economies and strengthening food security.

Today, the proposal to excavate 20,000 km of canals has brought the issue back to the centre of national debate. The scale is ambitious, and understandably so. The real question, however, is not whether canals should be restored, but how this can be done in a way that delivers lasting environmental and economic benefits.

Bangladesh has already experienced the consequences of poorly planned water management. The Flood Action Plan relied heavily on embankments and structural interventions that disrupted natural water flow and damaged wetlands. Dhaka once had one of the most effective gravity-based drainage systems in the world, supported by an intricate network of canals and low-lying retention areas. Much of that system has been lost to unplanned urbanisation and embankments.

Even recent excavation projects have sometimes produced disappointing results. Canals dug without understanding how water and sediment move across the delta quickly silt up again, causing erosion, worsening floods, and wastage of public resources. Without a scientific framework and long-term maintenance, excavation alone cannot solve a hydrological problem.

Meanwhile, the dry season is becoming longer. Farmers are increasingly dependent on groundwater for irrigation, even as climate change makes rainfall more erratic. Arable land is shrinking—from nearly 73 percent of the country in 1990 to about 60 percent in 2023—while the population continues to grow. The pressure on water, food, and ecosystems is intensifying over time and space.

This is why science and long-term planning must guide the new canal initiative. The country already has such a framework in the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, which calls for reconnecting rivers, canals, wetlands, and floodplains so that the landscape can store, move, and release water in a controlled way. Aligning canal restoration with this vision makes it part of a national climate resilience strategy, rather than a series of isolated projects.

It also answers a practical question: does every kilometre need to be excavated? The answer is no. A three-tiered approach makes far more sense, but it must follow the natural flow of the catchment, working upstream to downstream so that newly cleared channels do not silt up again. Some waterways are fully silted and require complete restoration. Others still hold water but need their banks stabilised through the ambitious Green Shield planting pledged by the ruling party in its election manifesto, and protected from encroachment. Many are already functioning and would survive with maintenance, plantation and community monitoring in parallel. Thinking in these tiers turns the 20,000-km target from a large excavation drive into a realistic and cost-effective national water management programme.

Modern technology makes this approach possible. High-resolution digital elevation models created from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data can reveal the true shape of the land. With such tools, planners can identify lost canals, understand natural flow paths, and decide where excavation is necessary and where protection is enough. We need to understand local geography as well, including soil type and composition. Without this knowledge, we risk repeating past mistakes.

Bangladesh is not short of water, but rather poor in water management. With proper planning, transparent implementation, and strong scientific guidance, canal restoration could deliver multiple benefits: reduced waterlogging, improved flood management, more reliable surface water for irrigation, enhanced groundwater recharge, stronger fisheries and biodiversity, and renewed inland navigation. Countries such as the Netherlands have shown that long-term prosperity in a delta depends on working with water, rather than against it. Bangladesh, with its vast floodplains and dense river network, has even greater natural potential.

A scientifically grounded canal restoration programme can reconnect the country’s blue and green landscapes and create a more liveable environment for millions. Done properly, canal excavation is not about digging soil. It is about restoring the hydraulic logic that once made this delta one of the most productive and resilient regions in the world.

Dr Ashraf Dewan serves as the director of research at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University in Australia. He can be reached at a.dewan@curtin.edu.au.

Dr Mo Hoque is senior lecturer in hydrogeology and environmental geoscience at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.​