Bangladesh

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.