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  • How to Prevent Dhaka Water War

    How to Prevent Dhaka Water War

    Fayaz Yousuf: Water is a transparent liquidthat forms the world’s streams, lakes, oceans and rain. It is vital for all known forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet’s water is found in seas and oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds and precipitation.

    Water constitutes two-thirds of the surface of the earth covering around 71 percent of the earth’s surface but only three percent is freshwater out of which 69 percent is “trapped” as ice, mainly in the two Polar Regions. The remaining freshwater occurs in rivers, lakes and aquifers which human being, plants and other animal species can use (WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2010).

    Water scarcity has been causing conflict since the beginning of civilizations. Kjellén and McGranahan (1997) predicted that two-thirds of the world’s population will experience water stress conditions by 2025 and some countries would experience high water stress conditions where water withdrawal against available resources exceeds 40 percent. According to Ariyabandu, the withdrawal rate against available resources is 48 percent in South Asia. Bangladesh, as being a riverine country, has been facing dual challenges from water: firstly, unlimited floodwater during the wet season and secondly, increasing scarcity during dry season.

    Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. More than 130 million people live in an area of 147 570 km2 and the population is increasing at a rate of around 1.6% annually. Dhaka is a megacity with a population of about 16 million and is growing at an annual rate of around 5%, one of the highest amongst Asian cities. According to a report, Dhaka will be the second-largest city in the world by the year 2015. The huge population puts forth massive pressure on the water supply system and causes a huge amount of deficit every year.

    Water Issues of Dhaka City

    In Bangladesh, the water supply coverage has been increasing both in the urban and rural areas since the 80’s. Almost 88 percent of water is withdrawn for irrigation, livestock while only 10 percent, and two percent use it for household and industry respectively (FAO, 2010). Nearly 97 percent of the rural population is using over 10 million hand tube wells to fulfill their drinking water demands.

    In Bangladesh, there are two sources of water

    • Surface Water Resources
    • Ground Water Resources

    2000mm of rainfall is received by Dhaka annually. Beside this, Dhaka is located close to the convolution of the mighty Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers and it is frequently flooded, often devastatingly. These three rivers constitute the world’s second biggest river system with an annual discharge 25 times that of the Nile. However, Dhaka is one of the most challenging megacities in its water management.

    The water supply and sewerage services have been allocated to one single public authority. Under the WASA Act (1996), Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has the sole responsibility of providing water, sewerage and storm water drainage services in Dhaka. The Act provides for DWASA to manage its facilities and operate with a high degree of autonomy. It now supplies 0.51 km3 of water per year against the demand of 0.73 km3, serving around 72% of the city dwellers. The quality of the supplied water is very much in question. Almost 1000 private wells abstract another 0.35 km3 of groundwater per year, mainly for industrial purposes. Groundwater is used far beyond the sustainable rate and this groundwater mining puts a serious strain on the environment. The groundwater table has gone down 20 to 30 m in the past three decades and continues to sink 1 to 2 m per year.

    Dhaka city faces two major problems in supplying water:

    1. Gradual decrease of raw water sources and
    2. Discharge of large quantities of polluted water (Serajuddin, 1993).

    DWASA projects total water demand considering per person per day water demand as 150 liter and accordingly supplies water to the city dwellers. Total water demand in Dhaka city varies from 2100 to 2300 MLD with seasonal variation. However, total production capacity of DWASA is 2247.47 Million Liter per Day (MLD) (both groundwater and surface water).

    Apparently, DWASA is able to fulfill current water demand through their capacity. However, DWASA has never reached its production target and actual production for groundwater and surface water is 1831.20 MLD and 256.30 MLD respectively with a demand-supply gap of 160 MLD.

    There is variation of water consumption rate in different regions.To maintain daily life, a substantial amount of water is required. At least 50 l/p/d of water is considered as basic water requirement as suggested by Gleick and IWRA (1996).

    To fulfill the daily water requirement from reliable source, dependency on private sector is increasing day by day. Most of the people in Dhaka city buy filtered or bottled water though they are not well aware of the quality of this water. There is a common perception of city dweller regarding DWASA supplied water that it is full of micro-bacterial organisms and contaminated with different chemical and biological contaminant. Even though almost 87 percent of the supplied water of DWASA is retrieved from groundwater that is safe from microorganisms and heavy metal contamination, it is likely that the supplied water might be contaminated due to the leakage in pipelines and reservoirs. In reality, poor management, irregular monitoring, and inadequate supply make people rely on privately owned water supply. In addition to bottled and filtered water business, there is another business of water filtering.

    Reasons behind Insufficient Water Supply

    There are several reasons behind the insufficient supply of water in Dhaka city like

    • Scarcity of water resources,
    • Pollution of water resources,
    • Huge amount of water has been collected from ground,
    • Illegal connection of water,
    • Lack of awareness on proper usage of water

    Possible Solutions

    In this issue, many scholars have agreed that only awareness alone can do enough to change today’s devastating water crisis situation. Along with this they also have suggested the immediate implementation of

    • Starting the reuse of Grey Water (a major fraction of domestic wastewater which is about 75% (vol.) of the combined residential sewage [Eriksson, et. al., 2002])

    And

    • Staring the implementation and usage of Rainwater Harvestingin every household of Dhaka city.

    Conclusion

    At present, access to safe water is a burning question and scarcity of safe water can directly affect the long-term prospects for sustainable development. Many cataclysms can take place in near future due to the lack of safe water.

    Present water supply system in Dhaka city is heavily dependent on groundwater that signals a cloudy future with severe water crisis. Though the WASA has already started to shift its present groundwater based production system to surface water production, this require huge investment and time.

    Moreover, the status of peripheral rivers of Dhaka city is highly degraded with a major portion of it is under illegal encroachment. That is why it is highly doubtful to fulfill future demand just by relying on these sources. Considering the present crisis and future demand, it is high time to seek additional sources.

    The writer can be reach at his email: mail4fayazyousuf@doanmanhhieugmail-com

    Photo Courtesy: UNICEF

  • Dhaka Water War

    Dhaka Water War

    Fahmida Sattar: Dhaka water war, it is often said that mankind will experience a war over water in the near future. The claim has some truth in it, no doubt about that. But the term ‘Dhaka Water War’ is already an existing truth for Dhaka dwellers. It is indeed irony for a city surrounded by a river that it can not provide the least quantity of water. Experts often blame mismanagement and unplanned urbanization, rapid population growth in cities, etc. This article ‘Dhaka Water War’ will attempt to investigate the water crisis of Dhaka from a perspective where water is considered as a birth right not a mere commodity. In light of this idea, the article will also make an effort to provide some suggestions to lessen and then solve the water crisis, which has made the city of 15 million people a ‘living hell’. The focus will be on the community measures which require less budget and bureaucratic complexities.

    The Current Situation

    According to a report by The World Bank, Dhaka has the highest population growth rate for a city in the entire world. Around 3-4 million people, which constitute about one-fifth of the total population of this mega-city, live in slums. Most of the slums lack any proper water supply lines from WASA. Slum-dwellers standing in long rows, waiting for hours to collect a single gallon of water, is a very common scene.

    Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) said they are producing 160 to 165 crore liters of water which is about 25 percent less than demand. It extracts groundwater using 620 deep tube wells. In addition, more than 2,200 private wells also draw water to serve high-rise buildings and various institutions. The underground water now provides 88% percent of total demand, which was 95% before The Saidabad Water Treatment Plant went into action in 1995. As a result, the subterranean water level drops about 3 meters every year. The rate is 53.75 meters in Mirpur, 18.59 in Mohammedpur and 8.22 meters in Sutrapur. This rapid fall of underground water level does not only create a crisis in the supply of water but also the vacuum left by this fall possesses a great threat of an earthquake. Besides saline water is intruding to fill up space, posing a threat to getting fresh drinking water in the future.

    As Bangladesh is often titled as `land of rivers’, the nearby rivers could be considered as a source of water to diminish the pressure on underground water. But WASA emits 1,000 tonnes of untreated human waste into the rivers adjacent to the city every day, which means river water is unfit for human consumption. The unmonitored industrial wastage system is worsening this problem day by day. 

    Community Measures of Dhaka Water War

    One of the key factors which have a major effect on the gradual descending of subterranean water level is that our city planners often leave little chance for the rain water to get into the ground. Because most of the city areas are paved over, rainwater cannot be absorbed by the ground. Instead, it runs across the pavement, picking up oil, street debris, animal feces, and other waste as it moves. Reducing the amount of runoff rainwater is very critical to ensure the satisfactory level of underground water.  

    Experts use the term ‘rainwater harvesting’ to discuss the process of accumulation and deposition of rainwater for reuse on-site or underground. It goes without saying that the best way of letting rainwater go into the ground is keeping the importance of permeable surface in the head. For areas where hard surfaces are necessary, pavements should be built in a way so that it let the rainwater reach a permeable surface.

    Building rain barrels is another effective way of reducing runoff and conserving rainwater. According to the tutorial, provided for the people of Minnesota, the USA by the state government, it needs only about half an hour to make a rain barrel at home. As Bangladesh yet to reach extreme water crisis conditions, building a community rain barrel is enough to tackle the present situation.

    Rain gardens are another community mean of rainwater harvesting. These are concave-shaped gardens that collect runoff from downspouts, driveways and other hard surfaces. Plants that tolerate “wet feet” should be planted in the bottom, while plants that need less water are planted on the edges.

    Rainwater harvesting has proven to be successful in other parts of the world. The 35 rain water harvesting systems working in NYC’s community gardens collect 422,900 gallons of water every year. That’s enough for 264,313 toilet flushes! The Institute of Water Management (IWM) shows if 60 percent of total rain water can be harvested in a city like Dhaka, it will be capable of providing 200 million liters of water every single day.

    In India, the state of Tamil Nadu was the first to make the conservation of rain water compulsory for every building to avoid the rapid decrease in the underground water level. As a result of this, Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, saw a 50% rise in water level in five years. The other states gradually followed Tamil Nadu’s example and found surprising results. The state of Rajasthan receives a scant 400 mm of rainfall annually where the relatively dry western region of Rajshahi, receives 1600 mm of annual rainfall. The decade of the 1980s is Rajasthan is marked with the revival of the ancient tradition of creating Johads, large rain water reserve tanks. Now there are over 4,500 working Johads, lessening the water crisis of one of the driest places in this subcontinent.

    Conclusion

    In comparison with the vulnerable economy of our country, one can easily draw the conclusion that no quick solution in near at hand. First of all, the crisis should not be let to go out of control. This can easily be done by reducing the quantity of usage and wastage. Moreover, community measures are easy to be introduced and apparatuses are very available. As there is a wise saying, “All’s well that ends well”, the article is being concluded with good news. This November, Honorable LGRD minister has announced that the government is going to provide water supply lines in every slum area of the city within December 2015. One can raise doubt about whether it is really going to happen at last. But what can satisfy Dhaka dwellers is that this matter is taken to attention. The whole world today is talking about the impending severe water crisis. Bangladesh should not be left behind.

    The writer is a student at the University of Development Alternative (UODA).

    Photo Courtesy: The Daily Star

  • Aqua Stressed in Mega City, A Road to Prevent

    Aqua Stressed in Mega City, A Road to Prevent

    Joni Alam: Water is essential to health, agriculture, energy, science, industry, transportation, and recreation- In short, to human existence- water is an incredibly complex matter, at once political, economic, legal, social and ecological in its nature. For any region, water fixed its national plan, domestic and external policies of the region’s principal actors. As water shortages occur and full utilization is reached these policies tend to be framed more and more in zero-sum terms, adding to the probability of discord. The foremost water supply of a country is used for its city men although the water supply and resources of a city are limited.

    Bangladesh is home to 2.15% of the world’s population, and merely .24% of water resources. The country is almost entirely dependent on cross-boundary water flows for its supply.

    Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, faces severe water shortages. While the city needs 2.2 billion liters of water a day, it can only produce 1.9 million, said, Dhaka’s Water Supply and Sewerage Authority. Shortages are so severe that some areas of Dhaka will have no water for several days. Sometimes, the dwellers of this city do not get a single drop for the months, which makes lives miserable and they have to survive for months by buying water from WASA tankers, paying sometimes more than twice the official price which is not hygiene. As a consequence, most people have to suffer from diarrhea.

    The city dwellers sometimes stop fetching water from the pump and use the supply water instead. This source of water is not properly managed, which will put the city at risk of severe water shortage in the future. When there is a supply of water from WASA, it is too dirty and unfit for consumption. Even despite boiling it for more than an hour, the bad smell doesn’t go. Water experts have called for the city to increase the usage of surface water sources such as ponds, rivers, and canals.

    But surface water is being polluted across the Dhaka due to indiscriminate discharge of industrial wastes into the rivers so that Dhaka is going to face an acute problem in getting pure drinking water. It is the most acute fear for the middle class and poor people in this city as well.

    We have seen most of the times, poor people like women, stand up with their empty jar in the open place for getting water and it happens sometimes by the children bring out a silent procession with a pitcher in the capital demanding smooth water supply. None of them are concern about the purity of the water. They only know, they have to survive their lives through that water. The city dwellers are dependent on readymade water rather than natural water instead of having a huge source of natural water because this water is being polluted and used improper ways. It is happening, of course, for the lack of taking adequate steps of proper authority.

    It should be acknowledged that one of the causes of the water crisis is, of course, the continuously growing population of the city. Development of utility services has to assume a stable population, if population swells continuously, infrastructural facilities will be bitterly challenged to match up. The daily requirement of water in the city is 200 crore liters whereas WASA can supply at best 180 crore liters. As WASW’s main source is groundwater, the groundwater table keeps falling with an obvious risk to the environment.

    In Bangladesh, Dhaka (capital) is the densest city with 12.8 million populations according to the official estimation but an unofficial estimate put this figure closer to 15 million, including 3.4 million living in slums. Another 300,000 to 400,000 people migrate to the city each year, which has witnessed a four-fold increase in its population in the last 25 years. According to the World Bank, the mega-city has the highest population growth in the world.

    The city requires 2.2 billion liters a day, but can only produce 1.9 to 2 billion water while almost water comes out from ground resource. Specialist warns authority’s for its over-dependency on groundwater and suggest to usage the surface water. Dhaka City is located on the flat delta of three major international rivers; the city is surrounded by a network of rivers; the Buriganga to the south-west, the Turag to the north-west the Balu to the north-east and the Shitalakhya to the south. and it has been seriously damaged by the flood of river overflow and heavy rainfall in the rainy season. Dhaka receives about 2,000 mm of rainfall annually, of which almost 80% falls during the monsoon. Floods are one of the main natural hazards affecting the city and are associated with river water overflow and rainwater stagnation.

    The city has become more vulnerable to intense urban flooding due to heavy and unpredictable rainfall in recent years. The drainage capacity of the city has also decreased alarmingly due to the development of unauthorized settlements. Illegal occupation of drainage canals and wetlands by land grabbers has further contributed to the problem. In the rainy season, the city mostly collapsed its water supply and drainage system due to it unplanned and unreliable construction, overloading, shortage of workforce of DWASA, lack of management and delaying in repairing of failed part and In the dry season from March to May water crisis looming for power shortage and outages. Many people didn’t get water for days because DWASA is unable to extract enough water to meet demand. And many people complained that water the rendered is undrinkable.

    WASA runs 600 deep tube wells in the city to extract water, and there are also 2,000 private tube wells throughout the city. About 87 percent of Dhaka residents use groundwater, mostly from deep tube wells, while the rest use treated surface water. (IRINA 18 November 2014). Adding to the water crisis, dwellers of some areas were getting unusable foul-smelling water from Water Supply and Sewerage Authority. The stinky water was allegedly spreading waterborne diseases as well.

    This water crisis creates a panic situation in the world’s largest megacity. Over 7,000 children die from diarrhea every year in Bangladesh and water-related diseases cause nearly a quarter of all deaths. (Water aid annual report 2013-14)

    Water-related improvements are crucial to meet the Millennium Development Goals, reduce child mortality, and improve health and nutritional status in a sustainable way. In addition, they induce multiple social and economic benefits, adding importantly to enhanced well-being. It’s very important to create well planning and good management to reduce the water crisis. It’s needed to trace a forecasting project line about total water demand and area-based demand of Dhaka city by estimating projected population growth and projected economic development and also forecasting water supply by estimating Rainfall projection, surface water projection, and groundwater projection. Bangladesh’s government not yet pegged water police while many developing countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia are cajoling the advantage of national water police. Ironically Bangladesh is a lower land country and we call our country mother of the river but we are immersed in a water crisis, not a shortage of water but improper regulation and pie situation in water authority.

    The drainage system of Dhaka city is heavily dependent on the water level of peripheral river systems. During most of the monsoon period, the water level of the river remains higher than the water level inside the city area. Hence, the draining of water by gravity flow is not always possible.

    Stronger action is needed now. Government steps in addressing this problem to date have been inadequate. Water problems stem mostly from an over-dependence on groundwater and the World Bank notes that the city obtains most of its water from over-exploited aquifers. Initiatives to cut the dependency and increase the use of surface water should have been taken much earlier. We have to use surface water to take by purifying and in this regard industrial attitude must be changed to pollute water.

    In this connection, it can be attached importance to creating mass awareness of the matter. The government has to ensure setting up of Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) at all industrial units for proper waste management to avoid water pollution. As we know, most of the industries have no ETP facilities for waste management, so the government has to make it mandatory to set up ETP facilities at all industrial units to save the surface water from pollution. In this regard, the JU Environmental Science Department has already installed a wastewater treatment laboratory under the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) on the campus for purifying the industrial wastewater. The lab will provide a proper direction to the industrialists to operate its treatment in a sustainable way. We must ensure effluent treatment plants to be used by all industries. Also, the Water and Sewerage Authorities must ensure the use of human waste treatment plants.

    Safe water is essential for our existence and is related to safe food which means with the rising absence of safe water, the food produced at homes and also in eating places will be unsafe and lead to stomach and gastrointestinal diseases. Those industries which do not use effluent treatment plants in the near future must be stopped until they start using effluent treatment plants. Our universities like BUET and JU must come up with the latest models of effluent treatment plants that would serve our requirements for safe water. Also, all canals and rivers and water bodies must be surveyed to see the extent of water pollution and treatment plants must be set up accordingly.

    Other devices such as the Lifesaver bottle’ incorporate an extremely fine filter technology to filter out all bacteria and viruses. This makes the water drinkable from any source. The filter is useable for 15,000 liters of water. Once the filter is easily replaced and then the bottle is usable for another 15,000 liters. It can make water drinkable from any source, stops the spread of water-borne diseases, saves lives and can easily be served to the city dwellers. Products like the reverse Osmosis Sanitation system’ (ROSS) use movement generated by wheels to pass filters through a tank of water that cleans it of bacteria and viruses. It can carry 50 liters of water in one tank and stops the person from having to carry the volume of water as they can simply roll it. It also acts as a storage device for large quantities of water. It can completely clean the water of diseases or bacteria, prevents the spread of water-borne diseases, acts as a storage device. Governments and aid organizations can also invest in providing safe and clean water in the city areas in the form of taps or standpipes. The water for these taps could be sourced from boreholes that use unpolluted groundwater as their sources. It will reduce the number of deaths from drinking polluted water by providing a reliable clean source.

    Overall, we should conscious to waste the water. Our government should take a hard step to control this situation in this city for the betterment of city dwellers.

    (The writer is a lecturer of Mathematics of Comilla University. He can be reached at email: [email protected])

  • Finalization of National Tobacco Control Policy under Threat: PROGGA

    Finalization of National Tobacco Control Policy under Threat: PROGGA

    The cigarette manufacturers’ organization Bangladesh Cigarette Manufacturers Association (BCMA) has already started a strong lobbying campaign in the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to hinder the finalization process of the National Tobacco Control Policy (NTCP) 2019. On 15 September 2019, the organization sent a letter to the Finance Minister, with copies sent to Finance Secretary, Health Services Secretary and Chairman of National Revenue Board (NBR). In the letter, the association presented a series of unsubstantiated and fictitious explanations and ‘reasoning’ against the proven and highly effective tobacco control measures that the draft NTCP contains including the abolishment of government partnership in tobacco companies, the banning of foreign direct investment in the tobacco sector, banning of emerging tobacco products, increasing the size of Graphic Health Warning (GHW) on tobacco packaging, the introduction of plain packaging, increasing tobacco taxes and prices as well as introducing specific excise taxes.

    The sole purpose of BCMA’s strategy here is to bring forth the issue of tobacco revenue in order to intimidate and manipulate the MoF and eventually impair the finalization of NTCP. Previously, the tobacco companies launched a concerted media campaign to disrupt the inter-ministerial meeting on NTCP.

    BCMA in its letter mentioned Bangladesh as one of the countries with high tobacco taxes. The reality is quite the contrary as the price of cigarettes in Bangladesh is one of the cheapest in the world. Average price of cheapest cigarettes is more than twice in India than it is in Bangladesh. According to a 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) study, with the exception of Myanmar, Nepal and Indonesia, Bangladesh has the cheapest cigarette prices in the South and South-East Asian region.

    As a result, it is evident that there is no alternative to increasing this ‘cheapest’ price by introducing specific taxes on tobacco products. In the letter, BCMA could not but mention its favourite fear-mongering story that if, by sheer chance, the authority manages to increase the tobacco taxes substantially, it would result in widespread tax evasion and huge influx of illicit cigarettes, eventually causing the govt a massive revenue loss. The fact, as always, contradicts with BCMA’s claim.

    The report ‘A Global review of Country Experiences’, published in February 2019 by the World Bank, has found out that the increase in tobacco taxes has barely any relation with illicit trade of cigarettes and the percentage of illicit trade of tobacco in Bangladesh stands at merely 1.8 percent, the lowest in 27 countries. BCMA also claimed that the plain packaging strategy of tobacco control is ineffective in curbing the use of tobacco products. But in reality, till today, more than 16 countries in the world, including Australia, Canada, Belgium, Hungary, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Singapore, have introduced plain packaging in their tobacco control mechanism after realizing its impact.

    Even our neighboring countries, Srilanka and Nepal are also working on implementing plain packaging soon. In Plain Packaging, tobacco companies cannot attach any promotional messages in the packets of tobacco products. It also boosts the effectiveness of GHW on tobacco packs. Currently, GHW messages covers the lower 50 percent of all tobacco packs in Bangladesh whereas it is 90 percent in Nepal, 85 percent in India and Thailand, 80 percent in Sri Lanka. BCMA also emphasized on retaining the govt. shares on tobacco companies, claiming that it is important for revenue earning and minimizing public health risk. Again the reality is that the govt.’s shares in multinational tobacco companies and the presence of govt.

    Officials in the Directors’ Board give the companies an unprecedented opportunity to infiltrate the policymaking process and interfere in tobacco control strategies. BCMA also stood against the proposed policy of banning foreign direct investment in the tobacco industry claiming that such investment creates employment opportunities which is undoubtedly ridiculous laughable. The truth is that Bangladesh, a country where 49 percent of its population is youth, appears as a tantalizing market for expanding tobacco business. The country is currently going through the ‘Demographic Dividend’ stage as the working-age population is larger than its dependent population.

    However, the high prevalence of tobacco use can lead this generation to premature death and loss of productivity and vitality. BCMA’s letter also presented electronic cigarettes, vaping, heated (IQOS) tobacco products as ‘safe alternatives’ to traditional cigarettes and advised against banning these products. Tobacco companies produce and market these products targeting the youth and children.

    Due to innovative marketing and attractive designing of these products, it has already gained much popularity among school-going children and adolescents. The widespread prevalence of emerging tobacco products has already taken a deadly turn in Europe and the U.S. Bangladesh is yet to experience such widespread use of these items though the numbers are rising up. Thailand, Singapore and some 40 countries have already banned e-cig and vaping products. 

    It should be mentioned that tobacco claims more than 126,000 lives each year in Bangladesh and incurs a financial loss of more than Taka 30,560 cr. due to the illness and deaths, it causes. Realizing the extent of loss caused by tobacco use, the Hon.

    Prime Minister declared her vision of transforming Bangladesh into a tobacco-free country by 2040 and in 2016, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) started formulating National Tobacco Control Policy to reach the goal. As a party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of WHO, Bangladesh is officially committed to safeguarding its tobacco control policies and measures from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.

    So the govt must stay clear of the influence and interference of tobacco companies and finalize and implement the National Tobacco Control Policy as soon as possible.

    Source: Press release from PROGGA (Received by E-Mail of bdenvironment.com)