Unplanned embankment poses threat to river
The ongoing construction of an embankment on the Sandhya river in Barishal has sparked outrage among locals who believe the structure will damage the river crucial to their livelihoods. Locals in Banaripara
Daily Star (Bangladesh)
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Hong Kong's carbon trading move too little, too late
Hong Kong has joined the international carbon trading structure with a promise to slash emissions, but analysts say the move will fail to produce any serious reductions in greenhouse gases. "It is a bit of an impotent gesture and is about four years too late," said Shane Spurway, head of carbon banking at Fortis Bank. In a low-key press release sent out just before a public holiday weekend earlier this month, the city's Environmental Protection Department said it had set up the legal framework to allow projects that could sell on their reductions in carbon emissions.
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Food productivity challenge (Editorial )
IN a technology-driven world where new cultivation techniques are being applied in the agriculture sector to maximise output, Bangladesh has not been able to capitalise on such modern technology well within our reach. A Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) study says that while present per annum yield of rice hovers around 3.5crore tonnes, Bangladesh could actually increase production to 7.00crore tonnes through introducing modern irrigation system, proper use of fertilizer and bringing more fallow land under cultivation.
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545 acres of arable land lost a day
Speakers at a view exchange meeting yesterday said that within 2088 there would be no cultivable land in Bangladesh if the present rate of conversion of farmlands into non-cultivable ones remains so. They urged the policymakers to adopt a master plan for using the land of the country for cultivation to achieve food security. The view exchange meeting on 'Recovering farm land, stopping non-farming use of farmlands and national food security' was organised by Forward Party at the Jatiya Press Club in the city.
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Nilphamari flooding still precarious
Flooding of Dimla and Jaldhaka upazilas in Nilphamari district with the rise of Teeta and its tributaries and other rivers in Nilphamari including Saniajan, Buri Teesta, Deunai, Burikhora, Charalkanta, Jamuneswari, Panga still remains at a precarious level. The rivers swelled as India opened all the gates of Gojaldoba barrage in the upstream to release the pressure of water from heavy rainfall in its territory and onrush of water from the hills.
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CCC evicts 30 shanties at foothills of Matijharna
Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) authorities evicted 30 shanties situated at the risky foothills of Matijharna area at Lalkhan Bazar yesterday. Sources said the CCC is evicting the houses to save the people, who are living at the foothills risking their lives, and to avert repetition of the landslide that claimed a total of 127 lives on June 11 in Chittagong last year. Local Ward Commissioner Monwara Begum Moni said they are conducting the drive through forming a committee Matijharna Samaj Unnayan Committee- comprising the house-owners and locals.
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Arable lands vanish fast over people's greed
Without caring at all for the government permission or maintaining environment codes, people are lifting rocks from vast patches of cultivable land in Panchagarh and some parts of Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari. Once arable, the pieces of land in the neighbourhoods of Tentulia turn uncultivable as the rock-lifters, who don't pay the government any revenue, abandon those. After extracting every available piece of rock, the lifters find it too expensive to fill up the pits, which contain only sand and oozing water and lie unused for years.
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Tropospheric ozone and air pollution
Ozone is one of the highly reactive gases, which is photo chemically active. It is composed of three atoms of oxygen (O3) and its role depends on its location in the atmosphere. This gas plays a different role in the lowest two layers of the atmosphere, known as the stratosphere and troposphere. In the stratosphere, above the tropopause about 90 percent of the ozone protects life on earth from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation.
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Is biodiversity conservation mere tree plantation?
Biodiversity Conservation Projects are designed to change something, to protect biodiversity. One of the major differences between biodiversity conservation projects and other projects, however, is that some people think it is often difficult to define -- in clear, operational terms -- precisely what it is that biodiversity conservation projects are trying to achieve. In a business setting, the project goal is usually financial profit and it is usually pretty easy to evaluate how much money a company is making or losing.
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Vitamin D may protect against heart attack
Men with low levels of vitamin D have an elevated risk for a heart attack, researchers said in the latest study to identify important possible health benefits from the "sunshine vitamin." In the study, men classified as deficient in vitamin D were about 2.5 times more likely to have a heart attack than those with higher levels of the vitamin.
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Fatal bacteria found in drinking water in Rajshahi div
Coliform, a fatal bacteria, has been detected in the drinking water of several northern districts including Bogra, says a survey report of the environment department of Rajshahi division. Director of the department Mohammad Abdus Sobhan said the bacteria, harmful for human being, was found in the drinking water supplied to several government and non-government establishments including educational institutions. The survey was conducted in Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Sirajganj, Lalmonirhat, Joypurhat and Naogaon districts from March to May this year.