Two Decades of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon: Continuing the fight to protect the environment

Speakers during a webinar yesterday said the country's green rights campaigns like Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) have vital contribution raising mass awareness on the importance of nature and environment.

Besides, such campaigns often spearheaded by Bapa also helped the government to take new decisions and policies to protect the environment, they said.

Bapa organised the webinar on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

The leading environmental platform started its journey on July 20, 2000 through a press conference. Since then, it took the country's green rights campaign to a new height, said the speakers.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, a noted environment lawyer, said Bapa's major success is that it did not limit itself within Dhaka city but spread its activities all over the country.

It successfully raised awareness about the importance of the river Buriganga through campaigning, which is a major achievement of the platform, she said.

Presenting a keynote paper, Bapa Vice President Nazrul Islam said the platform has been running its activities through voluntary service.

He said banning three-wheelers with two-stroke engine was a result of Bapa's successful campaign, while it also played a vital role in creating awareness about the sorry state of the country's rivers.

Noted economist Prof Anu Muhammad said it is important to incorporate the country's nature and environmental issues in political thinking.

Sadly, the government in the past two decades took even more rigid stance against the nature and environment in the name of different development projects, he added.

"We all know how challenging it is for a campaign to continue past 20 years, especially when the issues involve protecting and keeping the environment alive and march with it," said noted rights activist and Bapa President Sultana Kamal.

She said there had been negligence and "deliberately wrong decision-making", which failed to protect the environment and the effects of that can be realised at present.

Rights activist and Nijera Kori Coordinator Khushi Kabir congratulated everyone involved with Bapa for completing two decades of its journey.

She hoped it will continue spearheading environment-related campaigns in future.

Eminent water expert Prof Ainun Nishat, Bapa General Secretary Sharif Jamil, Campaign for Popular Education Executive Director Rasheda K Chowdhury, and former Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, among others, addressed the webinar.