Recent Concerns about the Environment in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world and is affected by natural disasters, pollution and a range of public health hazards. The country's main environmental constraints are its susceptibility to seasonal flooding, inadequate sanitation and its limited infrastructure for wastewater management. Conversion of the Sundarbans to shrimp ponds and rice paddies has reduced the protection provided by this coastal strip. This, along with sedimentation in the western delta region, has increased the flood risk. High river flow rates during the monsoon in the centre and east of the Bay of Bengal are a threat to human and animal safety. Difficulties with installing and maintaining sanitation networks in flood-prone regions are causing pollution problems, and this has become more evident from recent reports about antibiotic-resistant strains of enteric pathogens in coastal shrimps and prawns. Pollution with sewage and wastewaters from the shrimp farming and leather industries are contributing to poor water quality in the rivers and delta. Difficulties in achieving immediate and adequate surveillance during the 2007 avian influenza outbreak may have compromised control standards for this disease. This article gives an overview of these and other environmental and health issues affecting the country.

Incidence of contamination of live bird markets in Bangladesh with influenza A virus and subtypes H5, H7 and H9

“…Live bird markets are seen virtually at every kitchen market (a place where commonly daily required raw food items, such as vegetables, fish, meat and spices are sold) in the country, but wholesale and big retail LBMs are predominantly located in larger cities, such as Dhaka and Chittagong. After the introduction of HPAI H5N1 in the country, there was a common suspicion that the virus was being dispersed through LBM, suggesting the need for improved biosecurity in LBM (Biswas et al., ; Gregory, Biswas, & Chowdhury, ).…”

Biosecurity and Circulation of Influenza A (H5N1) Virus in Live-Bird Markets in Bangladesh, 2012

“…Risk of infection with a recently evolved zoonotic subtype – H9N7 – through LBM across south Asian countries was predicted (Gilbert et al., ). Circumstantial evidence during the first upsurge of HPAI H5N1 outbreaks in Bangladesh supported the hypothesis that HPAI H5N1 was being entrenched and dispersed through LBMs, suggesting the need for better biosecurity, to cut transmission of the virus (Biswas et al., ; Gregory et al., ). United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (Mondal et al., ) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations therefore started promoting good biosecurity at some wholesale and large retail LBMs in Bangladesh, particularly those in Dhaka and Chittagong (http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/al865e/al865e00.pdf).…”

Competing biosecurity and risk rationalities in the Chittagong poultry commodity chain, Bangladesh

“…Instead, the Department of Livestock Services depends on a passive surveillance system (MoFL 2009, p. 17), awaiting poultry mortality reports from the farmers. Not all farmers report mortality, fearing financial loss from compulsory culling (Gregory et al 2010). 5 Bangladesh is a lower middle-income country with a rapidly growing population on a surface area of 148,460 km 2 .…”