In Bangladesh, Rivers, fishes, and environments are now under threat of the Plastic pollution cycle
About 87 percent of the country’s plastic waste is not getting disposed of properly. In the stomachs of aquatic faunas, frequently found Plastic.
The water of Buriganga continued to pollute due to the disposal of various wastes daily. The washing of dirty plastics and the dumping of single used polythene making the pollution scenario more badly.
Bangladesh encountered as the first country in the world to ban polythene bags in 2002. Nearly two decades later, a recent study found that 87 percent of the country’s polythene and plastic waste are disposing of without any environmentally sound management, which leads to massive damages to the environment.
This information has come up in a review report of nine researchers of the world. Previously, a study published in 2015 said that Bangladesh ranks 10th in the world in terms of coastal plastic waste mismanagement.
Another recent research study found that new sources of plastic pollution are creating daily across a wide area of the Ganges (the Ganges in India, Padma, and Meghna in Bangladesh) from the Himalayas to the Bay Bengal.
The level of pollution is further increasing by the discarded and lost nylon nets of the anglers. On the one hand, these nets and fishing equipment is poisoning the river water. At the same time, it is going into the stomach of the fish. There were 22 environmental scientists in this research team.
The Journal of Science of the Total Environment published both the reports in November 2021 and a research program by the National Geographic Society, an international environmental organization.
In that report, the Plastic pollutions scenario is shown from the Himalayas region to the Bay of Bengal through Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, which are the river Ganges.
In this research work, the University of Dhaka, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, WildTeam, an NGO, and Isabela Foundation have taken part from Bangladesh.
The Wildlife Institute of India, the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth, and the Zoological Society of London ware also participated.
Gaussia Wahidunnesa Chowdhury, a member of the research team and a teacher in the Department of Zoology at Dhaka University, said, “No comprehensive research has been done on polythene bags since its banning from Bangladesh.
There have been some isolated studies in different sectors. Therefore, the policymakers did not understand the harmful aspects of it. As a result, there is still a lack of awareness about the use of Plastic in the country.
