This winter has been an interesting one in the UK. Two unconnected events have really given us reason to think about the environment. It is usual that in my part of Europe "The Environment" is mentioned everywhere - in newspapers, on television, in the political arena, in company reports and so on - but in the developed world we are usually removed from the realities of the consequences of pollution and environmental degradation. We have clean drinking water coming out of the taps, air quality in our cities is improving every year, our waste is taken away and disposed of in a hygienic manner and our food is safe.

Two things I didn't mention in that list are that we have cheap, plentiful fuel for our cars (the current statistic is that there is one car per 2.2 people in the UK and 82% of road traffic consists of cars) and we do not have extremes of weather. It is events related to these two things that I want to describe.

The first event was a mass protest - not uncommon in Bangladesh, but nowadays rare in the UK. A disparate group of people, mainly comprising of lorry drivers and farmers, started to protest about the amount of tax on fuel for road vehicles. The protest soon escalated and fuel distribution tankers were prevented from leaving refineries and depots. As soon as this was announced, there was panic and within a matter of hours it was not possible to buy fuel for private vehicles. For several days the country was disabled; people could not get to work, shops could not get deliveries, children could not get to school. The situation was temporarily resolved, when the government promised to "look into it" and the protestors gave them 60 days to sort it out.

The second event was the weather - Britain had its wettest winter since records began. Rivers rose, large areas of the country, including some larger cities and towns (eg York, Shrewsbury, Gloucester) were flooded. Many people were made temporarily homeless. One or two people were killed. Some businesses were bankrupted. Historic buildings and documents were damaged or destroyed.

The public response to the first event was to support the protest; after all we all want to pay less tax and have more money to spend on other things. We all need our cars to get around, to work and at weekends. The response to the second was typically British - "they should do something about it". The "something" in this case was to build more flood defences, to improve early warning systems and to introduce stricter planning controls, preventing houses being built on flood plains.

So what relevance do these events have to Bangladesh? I certainly think that some lessons can be learned.

Firstly, we in the developed world must realise that protection of the environment is a global problem and we have a responsibility to everybody on the planet. We in the west are often removed from the consequences of our actions, unlike the typical Bangladeshi: in the cities you are faced everyday with air pollution and the problems of waste disposal; and in the country, contamination of drinking water and the ever present dangers of flooding. A good illustration of this was the flooding; undoubtedly the UK suffered some real hardship, but in comparison to the human suffering and damage caused every year by flooding in Bangladesh, it really was trivial.

Secondly, it brought home how the developing world will suffer most from climate change. If sea levels do rise as predicted, it will be the people of Asia and Africa who will be affected in a far greater way than us in the west.

So the approach to long term environmental protection in Bangladesh relies partially on the industrialised countries bearing responsibility for their actions with a global perspective. The recent failure to reach an agreement at the World climate change talks in The Hague may have set this back somewhat, and serves to illustrate that not all countries are willing to make changes to address the issues.

But developing countries have an opportunity to avoid some of the mistakes that have been elsewhere as they develop more of an industrial base. The principle that should be applied to environmental protection should be one of prevention rather than cure. Companies must learn to assess and understand their environmental impacts in a systematic way, and then they should be able to act to prevent pollution. This not only benefits the environment, but should actually help companies to cut costs and lower risks without compromising quality. The overall result should then be to help ensure environmental protection whilst encouraging growth and development.

*(Please note that the views expressed in this article are the personal views of Derek Miles and not of WS Atkins).

ACI is the first company in Bangladesh to get ISO-9001 Certificate for Quality Management System in the year 1995. Since then we were preparing ourselves to improve the environment in the campus as well as surrounding as per guideline of ISO-14000 series of Environmental Management System. Although everybody agrees that "environment is important, but likely many other important things in our lives we do not pay it attention as it deserves." Many would argue that people in business are especially prone to know always remembering to give the environment a seat at the table. But our Management was committed to implement ISO-14000 in our Plant at Narayanganj by 2000. In order to achieve that for last 5 years we are working day and night to bring ourselves in that direction.

We set up our minds how to proceed as a part of programme. We identified that while implementing management system we need to do certain actions i.e. Continual Improvement in overall Environmental Performance in line with Organisation's Environmental Policy, surrounding in which our organisation operates including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their inter-relations.

Environmental Aspects and Impacts were identified, Legislative requirements were addressed; Environmental Audit Team was set up, Environmental Systems along with Environmental Objectives, Performance, Target and also interested parties concerned were addressed.

Having done so, in early 1998 we appointed Mr M Anwarul Islam as External Consultant to review our Environmental Management Plan (EMP). He submitted his report in December 1998 and subsequently on the basis of the recommendations, Corrective Measures were taken which is a continuous process. The consultant again examined our actions taken on the basis of his recommendations and finally submitted a report in March 1999.

On 21st July 1999 we applied to Department of Environment, Dhaka, Bangladesh for Environmental Clearance which was obtained on 1st September 1999.

We appointed Mr S Subrahmanyan, Environmental Consultant of India to review our documents on 23rd October 1999. Mr Subrahmanyan worked with us for more than 6 months and submitted his initial report on 9th March 2000. In his report he made several recommendations before appointing Accreditation Body for final assessment prior to certification.

On 9th July 2000, we appointed British Standard Institution (BSI) of India to carry out initial and final assessment for certification of ISO-14001. Dr. Vinod K. Jain, Managing Director and Mr Anil K. Agrawal, Associate Director of BSI, India assessed our activities on ISO-14001 and submitted their report along with recommendations for Corrective Actions. We involved all the employees at Plant level and also taken assistance from the local people around the Plant for implementation of the recommendations.

Mr N N Murthy and Mr Anil K. Agrawal, Associate Directors of BSI, India assessed from 25th to 27th September 2000 and finally recommended us for certification of ISO-14001.

Undoubtedly I would emphasised that without high commitment from the higher management and team spirit at all levels at the Plant and day and night work in addition to normal duties, it would have not possible to achieve ISO-14001 certification.

ISO-14000 implementation and upgrading of our Environmental Management System effectively we need to work in a planned manner and it's a continuous improvement and to do so continuous commitment at all levels is essential.

Ashraf Saleheen
Executive Director
Operations & Management Representative(ISO 14001 & ISO 9001)
ACI Bangladesh

Environment can be defined as the surroundings in which an organization operates. Surroundings in this context extend from within an organization to the global system. The key elements of environment are air, water and land. Maintenance of natural environment is essential for the existence of human beings as well as other lives in the world. In the course of development, it is thought that in nature's cycle of matter and energy, there is an endless flow of solar heat, renewal of soil fertility and infinite reserves of organic substances, free oxygen from photosynthesis and fresh water from precipitation. And the nature could simultaneously purify itself from natural and man made wastes. Thus, there was a common assumption that natural environment and its resources were inexhaustible. Moreover, in order to get quick benefits, while utilizing natural resources, man violated the matter and energy cycle to such an extent that the consequences have become irreversible. Since Bangladesh is one of the Least Developing Countries (LDC), its industrialization is a must for its development. To keep pace with development we are going for rapid industrialization without considering their consequences on environment and also with uncontrollable use of natural resources ignoring the environmental impact. At present the key environmental issues that are of great concern are:

# Ozone Layer Depletion;
# Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming;
# Acid Rain;
# Resource Depletion;
# Smog;
# Solid Waste;
# Pollution of Water and Land and;
# Nuisance.

Except the above three, which are mostly of global concern, we the inhabitants of Bangladesh are responsible for creating other local issues from our development activities. As a result, a situation has already created where none of the elements of environment (air, water & land) can naturally recover itself from the pollution generated from different sources. Since, industrialisation for the sake of development of the country can not be halted so management of industrial activities that are related to the environment is essential in this critical situation.

Environmental Management System (EMS) is a process through which an industry/organisation could think of minimising usage of raw materials and subsequent waste generation. Waste is a sign of inefficiency and lower operating costs are a direct consequence of waste minimisation or energy efficiency programmes. This will make a direct positive contribution to a company's profit. EMS is also a tool, which enables the organisation to achieve and systematically control the level of environmental performance that it sets by itself. Key elements of an EMS are:

—Initial review of environmental aspects (an organizations activities, products or services that can interact with the environment) ;

—Identification of legal requirements (relevant environmental legislation & regulations);

—Establishment of and commitment towards environmental policy;

—Training to the appropriate personnel;

—Implementation (acting according to the objectives and targets);

—Checking and corrective action (recording of information to track performance, relevant operational controls and conformance with the preset objectives and targets);

—System audits (for ensuring correct operation);

—Management review (to assess the performance and effectiveness of the system).

An EMS provides a mechanism for continuous monitoring of compliance with environmental regulations and other requirements such as customer requirements, local environmental issues, group policy etc. and a single point of reference to demonstrate compliance to regulators. Directors can be subjected to criminal proceedings on an individual basis for company breaches of environmental law. An effective EMS will allow management to monitor legal compliance with confidence and allow for the rapid correction of variations from regulatory requirements. EMS are of increasing interest to environmental regulators who appreciate that such systems incorporate a commitment to legal compliance and a systematic approach to maintain awareness of regulatory requirements and ensuring that they are met.

Operational control procedures and contingency/emergency plans are an integral part of an effective EMS and lead to reduced environmental liabilities through improved risk management at the site. This has the obvious benefits of reduced risk of fines for non-compliance with environmental legislation and retaining the site asset value through reduced risk of land contamination.

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The International Standards in the ISO 9000 series are intended to provide a generic core of quality system standards applicable to a broad range of industry and economic sector. In common with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 is a truly international standard for environmental management system for different organizations, certifiable by third party assessors. While quality management systems deal with customer needs, environmental management systems address the need of a broad range of interested parties and evolving needs of society for environmental protection. Environment could be protected through adoption of pollution prevention techniques by the use of processes, practices, materials or products that avoid, reduce or control pollution, which may include recycling, treatment, process changes, control mechanisms, efficient uses of resources and material substitution. So, ISO 14001 can be defined as an international specification for an Environmental Management System which:

Helps to ensure legal compliance;
Manages environmental impacts;
Improves performance and control;
Ensures continual improvement and ;
Mostly it is certifiable by a third party.

Therefore, different industries/organizations in a developing country like Bangladesh should be encouraged for acquisition of ISO 14001 certification in order to satisfy the customers' requirement, strengthen their market competitiveness locally as well internationally and mostly to save the vulnerable environment for them and for their future generation. Actually, a time will come in a very near future when export oriented industry will have to acquire ISO 14001 certification for selling their products to outside the country. To face this situation, from now onwards the export oriented industries should adopt the development of EMS in their premises so that, when situation demands they could acquire ISO 14001. In the same way, other industries/organizations could go for implementing EMS in their premises and thus save the environment.

Dr. Shawkat Osman
Prof. Civil Engineering Dept.
Bangladesh Institute of Technology Dhaka, Gazipur
Advisor, BEMF

Introduction

Pollution is one of the current issue now. In Bangladesh air pollution is burning issue. Smoke from motor vehicle is seriously harmful for Lungs, Eyes, Infants, Children and many more. City area is more pollutes than rural area, because of motor vehicles. Motor vehicles are highly responsible for air pollution, in 3rd world country vehicles are maximum reconditioned and obsolete from 1st world. Moreover lots of vehicles running in the road with a critical condition they break down any time, they make black smoke, and they use bad/worst lubricant oil (which contain lead).

Where are we?

Our main natural resource is natural Gas, and this is highly pure (95-98% CH4 ). Every year we import a huge amount of petroleum products, its around 1400 crore of Taka. If we use CNG on our transport sector we can save half of this amount and which can make another Jamuna bridge within 5 years.

CNG

Condensed Natural Gas, which made of compressing gas in -1630 C. Our finest gas is more useful for making CNG. By special process at -1630 C temperature gas is passing through the Liquifier, Heat Exchanger and Expansion Turbine etc. and its become liquid. In this process 20% of gas is become liquid rest of the gas is again go to the pipeline and the process is recycling. In Dhaka city there is 4 CNG station in service. Among the established station one or two is maximum time out of service. It is one of the reason of less use of CNG.

Advantage

Low cost: Here is a comparison of pricing(in Taka per Liter and cubic meter) Petrol Diesel CNG 23 15 7.45

Low maintenance: CNG is burn fully and has no residue, so its protect engine from destruction

Pollution Free: No smoke is come out from CNG driven Vehicle, so there is no pollution.

Save foreign currency: Every year we have to buy about many thousand MT of Petroleum which is cost of 1400 crores Taka. If we use CNG against petroleum we can save this money and use it for another developing works.

Its not stolable: Every private vehicles owner and Govt. is anxious about fuel stolen from his vehicle, but if they use CNG it can't happen. Because CNG is condensed gas when it come out, it is vanish.

Disadvantage

Disadvantage of CNG is rare, though some of the disadvantage is Still now its not available. Setup of CNG pump is costly. To convert a vehicle into CNG is cost about 15000-25000 Taka. Vehicles driven with both CNG/General fuel is not imported. Drivers are discourage vehicles owner to buy or convert vehicles in CNG.

Our duties

We have to campaign about using CNG. Concerning people about Air Pollution and try to protect it by our own. We can buy or impress the buyer to buy that fuel which is free from lead ( Some of the Fuel pump of Dhaka city serve lead free fuel it is hopeful).

Abdullah Al Mamun
Graphic Professional, Intent
Joint Secretary, BEMF

Unplanned and mushroom growth of Brick kilns around the city a mass used tyres, fuel wood and coal to light their furnaces in the most rudementary way from Sonargaon and Kanchpur to Kamrangirchar, and from Hazaribagh, Mohammadpur and Keraniganj to Savar, Konabari and Gazipur, about 5000 of this kilns will be burning millions of tons of these highly toxic 'fuels' round-the-clock until the rainy season sets in. Ar in previous years, exhausts from these kilns will blanket the city and its peripheral area with a thin cloud of toxic gas for the next few months. Millions of people, livestock and arable lands, trees and waterbodies in these areas will be exposed to a high level of air pollution, giving rise to serious health hazards.

There is a clear directive from DOE (Department of Environment) that brick field can be setup on the banks of river or canal or beside any large waterbody. Earth should be in the field which may be collected from that river, canal or waterbody. Besides to release smoke them should be a 120 feet high chimney with filter installation. But almost all the chimney used in the brickfields are found found to 40-50 feet high.Over 99 percent of there brick fields run without any Envionmental clearance what so ever. The brickfield owners not only brush aside the legal requirement of installing filters in the chimneys, but also openly defy the government ban on burning wood and toxic substance such as used tyros . they also do not care about the legal requirement of having exhaust chimneys high enough to disperse the waste beyond human contact.

Neither the district administrators nor the Department of Environment (DOE) has any programme in hand to look at this environmental nightmare. The DOE is already struggling with a handful number of inspectors to look in to thousands of other cases related to insurance of environmental clearance to industrial units . The DOE officials say as per law of the land the police can also clamp down on such practices but due to lack of initiative the law-enforcing authorities are completely indifferent to the problem.

In Bangladesh the owner of the brickfields somehow managed the license and environment clearance from the DOE and after that they do not follow it .brickfield owners make money, land owner and contractors erect buildings government officials make money bribes by allowing to continue the bad practice, but they are about to spoil the health of the next generation . But who cares? with the city expending at a rate of 1.5 kilometers a year in all direction, demand for bricks and other construction materials is rising. In the absence of any sincere effort to tackle the environmental problem, brick fields have mushroomed everywhere around the cities without any respect for the law of the land or environment. So, handle this environmental nightmare carefully for our future generation.

A.K.M. Sarwarzaman
Vice President, BEMF

I think everybody is concern about Jaundice. One of its result is hepatitis B. Still now which is non curable disease. In our country lots of people are suffering from Hbs Ag which is disqualify them from foreign Visa, or other and most of them are astonished, because they never fall in such kind of disease or even never suffering of Jaundice, so how do they get it?

'STD' (Sex Transmitted Disease), it's known to us that how it's happen. A lot deadly and dangerous disease like AIDS, Hepatitis, Syphilis, Ghonoreyah etc. is it's result. When Blood is responsible for these they may called BTD (Blood Transmitted Disease). Injection needle, blood donate or taking, sex etc. is the source of BTD.

Today I want to tell about a common source of blood transmitting. Let's come to the point, everyone of us have to go Saloon or Barber shop for Shave or hair cut. In the Saloon BLADE is used for your shave or clearing the short or unwanted hair from Julphi, Neck, upper side of the ear etc. You see the barber is used one blade for many people he does not know even you does not know who is effected by any of the deadly disease. So when a Blade is used by one of the effected person the next person who again use the same blade is also effected by that disease.

In our country content you can't do anything by aware the Barber. So my suggestion is Please buy a Blade by your own and give it to the Barber at the time of your shave or Hair cutting and be safe from BTD, if you are still not effected. If you are effected you also have to do so, because of other peoples safety. See only 1 Tk can save you from deadly disease.

Farzana Parveen
Executive Member, BEMF

Name: Paul J. Martin
Occupation: Environment Specialist, World Bank, Dhaka Office, Bangladesh
Join the World Bank: Year 1992
Marital Status: Not Married
Country: England
Staying in Bangladesh: 2 1/2 years
Academic Qualification: Quite mixed:
In under Graduation: 2 years in Geography, 1 year in Business Administration, Masters in City Planning, major in Environmental Legislation, Environmental Pollution and Development Economi

BEMF: How are you?

Paul: Fine.

BEMF: Thanks for giving us the time although you have a tight schedule.

Paul: You are always welcome.

BEMF: We know you are staying here for a long time, and you are a Environmental Specialist, so I think you know better about the environmental situation of Bangladesh. Please tell something about our environmental problem ?

Paul: In Bangladesh Industrial growth and Urbanization rate is very high. Like other big cities, here changing the urbanization rate and industrialization quickly. Industrialization is better for Bangladesh but at the same time, it's causes harm for the environment. People need industry and it's necessary for a countries development but over population is really bad for environment. In Bangladesh we see that here population growing very fast in urban area and rural area remain same. Here lot of industry growing faster, problems arise for that kind of industries. Problem arises there because of their EMS. In Bangladesh two legal obligations for industries; one is Environmental Conservation Act (ECA) 1995 and the other is Environmental Conservation Rules (ECR) 1997. Department Of Environment (DOE) is also a quite new organization and I think, still they are not able to take any industry to court.

BEMF: What is the most important Environmental issue of Bangladesh?

Paul: I think human health is the single biggest problem of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh 75% of population live in rural area. For making meal or other household activities they are burning wood and dung, this fume would cause for lungs infection and other disease. And also industrial pollution is now going to biggest issue for Bangladesh. Another important Environmental issue is Arsenic Problem.

BEMF: Government and World Bank took any initiative on these problems?

Paul: We are now running a project name "Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation & Water Supply Project" with DPHE. It started two years ago.

BEMF: Result?

Paul: They are screening tube well, marking them and testing and monitoring parameters.

BEMF: Tell something about Dhaka city's Environment.

Paul: Dhaka is now the most polluted city in the World. Air pollution is the main issue of Dhaka city. From air pollution about 8,000 people are falling death every year. Especially old people and children are affected by the air pollution. And another problem is waste problem. Sanitary and sewerage system are insufficient for a big city like Dhaka, and municipal waste are not cleaned in due time.

BEMF: Recently World Bank operating a training program on promotion of Environmental Management System(EMS) and implementation of ISO 14001. Do you think it will fruitful for Bangladesh?

Paul: I hope so. I think most important side of the project is, participant companies are the example for all industries in Bangladesh, and give them some help to get the ISO 14001 in cheapest cost.

BEMF: What was the target for launching the EMS project?

Paul: Trying to create some example for EMS in Bangladesh and build capacity for training on EMS.

BEMF: I think you know the activities of BEMF, Please give some comments about us

Paul: I think BEMF is an organization that is very resourceful and they started their journey at the very best time. They have some young and energetic people with one year training on EMS, that is the best part of them, and in Bangladesh most of the organization working on the "GREEN" issue and BEMF will working with the "BROWN" issues of the Environment that related with the industrial pollution. I think they know what is EMS and I wish they would implement their knowledge in this field.

BEMF: Give some tips for BEMF.

Paul: BEMF is a new group working hard to create awareness & promote Environmental Management System for the first time in Bangladesh. You have a strong team with a group of geographer, Environmentalist, Engineer's, Lawers, etc. I hope if you people work together for a pollution free world you must able to reach your target.

BEMF: Tell something about the other Environmental organization & NGO's who are active in this field?

Paul: In Bangladesh Environmental organizations & NGO's are acting as an important part for build awareness and concerning people about environment. But most of them are talking about the "GREEN" problem. Hopefully BEMF will able to take steps to create awareness and take initiative to work on BROWN issues.

BEMF: Do you like Cricket?

Paul: Actually I was not a fan of cricket before I came Bangladesh. But as there is a tremendous popularity of Cricket in Bangladesh now I become a fan of Bangladesh Cricket Team.

BEMF: Thank you again for this interview. BEMF family always grateful to you for your continuous support and friendly helps to run all the activities of BEMF.

Paul: I will feel proud to be with BEMF family with all their positive initiatives.

Interview was taken by:
Md. Anisul Kabir
Info. & Publication Secretary, BEMF
E-mail: khokon_19@hotmail.com