Environmental problems and governance

Abstract

The city of Dhaka has been experiencing significant environmental problems due mostly to a massive increase in population and unplanned development in the last few decades. The city administrators have resorted to a number of measures to address these problems, including the enforcement of environmental impact assessment procedures, with limited success. Based on analyses of relevant documents and interviews with officials involved in urban environmental governance, this chapter identifies some of the major environmental problems facing the city dwellers. This study critically analyses the status of environmental impact assessment and reveals that the government has established a good legal and organisational framework of environmental management but that there are deficiencies in enforcement. This chapter makes recommendations for improvements in environmental governance.