Located in the South of Asia on the Indian subcontinent lays
the land of the Bengal: Bangladesh. With
a population of 164 million crammed into a country 147,570 km2, Bangladesh
is one of the world’s most densely populated nations with 1,035.5 people per
square kilometre. Its capital, Dhaka located in the centre of the Bengal Delta,
has a booming population of 15 million.
Bangladesh is a population success story. In the 1970s, the
Bangladeshi government introduced a grassroots family planning program. From a
fertility rate of 6.6 children per woman in 1977 to the current one at 2.4,
Bangladesh’s government has succeeded with its goals. This decline has been
associated with economic improvement, with families wanting to allow their children
to access an education and provide other options for them. Family planning was
and still is massive in Bangladesh, and contraceptives have been effectively
integrated into society. Moreover, infant mortality in in Bangladesh has
dropped from 100 deaths per 1000 births in 1990 to 43/1000 in 2008.
But that’s where the good news stops.
Splitting at the seams, Dhaka is already heavily
overpopulated, and thousands are arriving daily fleeing flooding from the
north, and cyclones from the south, many of whom are ending up in the slowly
disappearing slum of Korail. Dhaka is already heavily underdeveloped city, with
it already struggling to provide the most basic services and infrastructure.
Dhaka is in no shape to take any more residents, yet it is still growing. Poverty
is evident everywhere in Dhaka. Densely populated slums lay on the banks of the
Buriganga River, with limited electricity and fresh water, and no sewerage.
Children lie on temporary beds on the already crammed streets, and remain
hungry for days.
A nation already
prone to flooding, Bangladesh is family inundation from the Bay of Bengal and
by 2050 over half of the country will be inundated. Now picture 2050, where the
population is set to explode to 220 million. The population will be centred on
the north of Bangladesh, with many of its citizens living in the already
overcrowded cities of Dhaka and Khulna. The country will simply brake.
Yet this can all be avoided with proper planning, and
assistance from other nations, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations. According
to Professor Mohammed Mabud from Dhaka’s North South University, if the government
encourages people to emigrate to nations for education, trade and employment,
he believes the population could be reduced by 8 to 20 million. Moreover, thde
United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, 2009 has committed to a
goal of $100 billion a year to assist poorer countries in combatting climate
change.
Even though Bangladesh has been a population success story, it
has many issues to overcome in terms of overpopulation, poverty, and climate
change effects. With proper planning and assistance, the effects of
overpopulation and climate change could have a lesser impact on Bangladesh and
its peoples.
