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Impacts of marine waste dumping on Bangladesh

Published : Sunday, 10 November, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 423
Debjyoti Sarkar
Marine waste dumping is a phenomenon that has become increasingly troubling to marine environments. In many regions of the world, the environmental consequences brought about by this practice have reached alarming proportions. In places like Bangladesh, that depends on the potential of its coastal waters for economic and biological reasons, the threat of marine dumping is very real.

Marine pollution is the discharge of harmful materials such as plastics, industrial waste, chemicals and even radioactive materials into the oceans intentionally or otherwise. This leads to the deterioration of the health of marine organisms but also disturbs the delicate structure of other systems essential to the webs of life and the environment.

Marine dumping is one of the issues that has been experienced everywhere in the world as it is touching all geographical regions. The assumption that seas and oceans can take in or subdue any form of pollutants has led to a shocking increase in wastes being dumped and this has affected the fisheries and even the inhabitants living close to the shores. In Bangladesh, there is every reason to be worried about the Bay of Bengal. The country's coastal areas home to several million people including fishermen and coastal tourists are extremely biodiverse.

Particularly, shipcycling pollution in Chittagong is regarded as one of the foremost factors responsible for environmental degradation of the ocean. The sea gets polluted by releasing hazardous materials like asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals which destroy the marine ecology. In addition, manufacturing waste and untreated sewage from metropolitan areas are most of the time dumped into the bay resulting in water pollution and compromising the health of the sea life.

The effects of dumping in the sea work in complex ways. They affect marine animals and people's health including the economy For marine organisms, swallowing a plastic straw and wasting other materials does an entirely opposite thing for a dispensing has suffocation or death due to undischarged wastes. Throwing an oil tray for instance cripples biophysical habitat mother earth's covering of furry creatures that held containment to a number of fish and gammas of the scourge.

Also at risk is human health. There are poisonous substances that get transformed in fish and when eating such fish, dangerous illnesses such as mercury that destroys the brain among other diseases health are at risk. An example would be chronic mercury poisoning arising dueering that mining of mercury affected individuals all over the world starting from the 1950s.

From an economic perspective, the coastal communities of Bangladesh heavily rely on clean water which is being threatened by polluted marine environments. Bangladesh's fishing and tourism sectors are most vulnerable to this situation. Tourists will not be attracted to places where they encounter dirty waters and dead sea animals while local fishermen get affected directly when fish are no longer abundant.

Bangladesh has signed many international conventions aimed at preventing marine pollution like the 1972 London Dumping Convention and MARPOL Convention. However, the country has some challenges to enforce these regulations. The ongoing practice of marine dumping can be attributed to inadequate legal frameworks and poor enforcement actions on existing legislation.

Nationally, there are some laws such as the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act (1974) as well as The Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act (1995) that provide a basis for combatting sea pollution. Unfortunately enforcement of these laws is weak. Polluters pay very little in most cases; furthermore there is no constant observation concerning ocean disposing of materials.

In order to make up for the problems caused by ocean disposal, a much wider method to dealing with oceans should be embraced by Bangladesh. More specifically, strengthening legal frameworks and ensuring strict enforcement of existing laws would be necessary. Moreover, public awareness campaigns on marine pollution dangers can provide an avenue for mobilizing local communities into action.

Addressing this issue through technological innovation is also very crucial. Some of the promising strategies include ocean sequestration which entails deep-sea storage of carbon dioxide in order to reduce atmospheric emissions as well as ocean fertilization that aims at increasing phytoplankton growth so that they can absorb more carbon dioxide. However, these solutions come with huge costs and need international collaboration.

Ports and coastal communities must focus on improving their waste management systems as this is paramount importance. Should Bangladesh regulate waste disposal tightly and promote recycling then it will drop the volume of junk dumped into its seas extensively. There are clean-up drives along country coasts that may assist in reducing short-term repercussions of ocean dumping.

This is an issue that must be survived against by everyone worldwide through oceans' fight against dumping; therefore governments, international organizations and locals need to collaborate. Marine pollution can be decreased through such legislation behaviour and public participation which are exemplified by countries such as Japan and Norway that have successful systems to manage waste.

For Bangladesh, adopting similar models and adapting them to local needs could help in protecting the Bay of Bengal and its coastal waters sustainability. The health of our oceans directly relates to future generations' well-being, and only through aggressive actions can we hope to retain these essential ecosystems.

Marine dumping is an environmental disaster that calls for immediate rebuttal. Through enforcing laws, educating the public and embracing innovative solutions, Bangladesh can join other countries in safeguarding the world oceans. These are not merely places where we dispose off things; they are indeed the arteries from which life flows into this planet, thus making it a common duty to preserve them.

The writer is Lecturer, Department of Law, North Western University


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