Dhaka: A three-day 'International Meeting of Parliamentarians on Climate Change: Beyond COP-17' begins in Dhaka Wednesday, seeking to formulate a parliamentary alliance involving the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Bangladesh Parliament through the Standing Committee on Environment and Forests Ministry with support from the UNDP under its project, 'Improving Democracy through Parliamentary', will organise the meeting at Radisson Water Garden Hotel in the city.

Dhaka: About 28 percent of Bangladesh's total population (41.7 million) is living in urban areas, said a Unicef report released on Wednesday.
Among the top 21 mega cities of the world, according to the report, Dhaka ranks 9th position with 14.3 million people, while Tokyo 1st with 36.5 million, Delhi 2nd with 21.7 million, Sao Paolo 3rd with 20.0 million.

Dhaka Wasa is considering a plan to recharge the underground aquifers with rain water in eight areas across the capital this year to top up the rapidly depleting groundwater table.

As the city's water table is falling by 2.5 to 3.5 metres per year due to excessive extraction of groundwater by deep tube wells, the government agency is also mulling over making water recharging facilities mandatory in the proposed national building code, said Wasa sources.

Most of the smokers feel encouraged to keep on this bad habit because of easy availability and comparatively lower prices of tobacco products, says a survey report.
The government’s present and former officials, who attended the launch of the report, however, said it was not always possible to reduce the rate of smoking only by increasing prices of cigarettes while awareness was much more necessary in this regard.
The programme was organised by the Campaign for Clean Air at the BIAM Foundation auditorium in the capital on Friday.

Tiger (Panthera tigris) populations, on average, have declined 70 per cent across the world, including Bangladesh, in the last 30 years, according to the Living Planet Report 2012.
The Living Planet Index for tigers in the Report said that forced to compete for space in some of the most densely populated regions on the earth, the tiger’s range has also declined to just 7 per cent of its former extent.

New Delhi: India is still trying to build a “political consensus” over the issue of Teesta water-sharing pact with Bangladesh. The first joint consultative commission meeting, co-chaired by foreign minister S M Krishna and his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni, on Monday saw Dhaka insisting on early signing of the pact, which has remained hostage to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s recalcitrance.

India has escaped a standoff — a repeat of the South China Sea squabble — with neighbouring Bangladesh following a ruling by International Tribunal for Law of the Sea (ITLOS) that India’s natural gas assets in Myanmar were outside Dhaka’s maritime limits. Clarifying the ITLOS ruling on water boundary between Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) has informed that blocks A1 and A3 would “remain within Myanmar side”. The blocks collectively hold about 6 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas and state-run Indian firms hold 25.5 per cent equity in each.

It has been around three years since the High Court ordered industries indiscriminately discharging waste water to install effluent treatment plants (ETPs) within a year. The court on June 10, 2009 also asked the government (industries secretary) to ensure that no new industry is set up without ensuring proper measures to check pollution.

However, the environmental law enacted in 1997 bars such 'untreated' filthy water discharge in waterbodies. It also states that ETPs are a must for those types of industries.

The High Court yesterday directed the managements of five readymade garment factories at Ashulia in Savar not to dump any waste on agricultural lands and water bodies.

The units on the outskirts of Dhaka are Mozart Knitting and Dyeing Industries, Kajal Garments, Nasirullah Cotton Mills, Apparels Village and Simtex Industries.