Is the Sundarbans of Bangladesh in a State of Pollution?

Abstract

The Sundarbans is the world’s most extensive natural mangrove forest and home to various natural resources. The population in the vicinity has increased, causing more dependency on the resources of the Sundarbans. The increasing industrialization, urbanization, aquaculture, intensive agricultural practices, seaports, tourism facilities, and so on in the peripheral areas of the Sundarbans have made significant changes in the surrounding and upstream land uses of the Sundarbans. This situation may have detrimental influences on the ecosystem components of the Sundarbans. Therefore, it is highly demanded to prepare a piece of baseline information or database of different sources of pollution and their present status in the various components of the Sundarbans. This effort helps to identify issues and concerns, determine the key elements of the ecosystem to monitor the level or overall quality of the Sundarbans ecosystem. The present study systematically collects the potential sources of pollution, types, and current levels in the ecosystem components of the Sundarbans using academic databases, libraries, and online resources. Discharge of industrial waste into water, soil and air, heavy metal pollution, use of agrochemicals, oil (refined and crude) pollution, plastic materials from urban areas, and tourism are the major issues and concerns related to the sustainability of the Sundarbans ecosystem. The air quality of the Sundarbans is in good condition with 0 - 50 AQI of Bangladesh. While BOD, COD, TDS, TSS varied from 2.0 to 3.8 mg/L, 21.6 to 416 mg/L, 146.9 to 24,100 mg/L and 54 to 155 mg/L, respectively. Soil EC, organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus ranged from 3.01 - 5.82 mS/cm, 1.41% - 2.69%, 0.51 - 1.05 mg/g, and 0.32 - 0.51 mg/g respectively. The air, water and soil quality parameters varied with the sites and seasons and not much at the state of contamination. Indeed, we must pay much attention to the Sundarbans’ air, water and soil quality with the massive and progressive change of the nearby land use pattern.