Bangladesh Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; destruction of wetlands; severe overpopulation with noise pollution

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 58.33 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 84.25 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 59.3 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)

Land use

agricultural land: 70.1% (2018 est.)

arable land: 59% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 6.5% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 4.6% (2018 est.)

forest: 11.1% (2018 est.)

other: 18.8% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 40.5% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.88% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.08% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.02% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations

water contact diseases: leptospirosis

animal contact diseases: rabies

note: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout Bangladesh; as of 9 December 2022, Bangladesh has reported a total of 2,036,760 cases of COVID-19 or 1,236.7 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 29,436 cumulative deaths or a rate of 17.8 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 6 December 2022, 87.12% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity: due to economic constraints -  losses in income and remittances caused by the COVID‑19 pandemic and its containment measures led to an increase in poverty; in 2022, food insecurity is expected to increase and remain at high levels due to the impact of recent shocks, including floods that occurred in mid‑May 2022 in the northeastern parts of the country and the elevated international prices of energy, fuel and food, which have been transmitted to the domestic markets (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 14,778,497 tons (2012 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Brahmaputra river mouth (shared with China [s] and India) - 3,969 km; Ganges river mouth (shared with India [s]) - 2,704 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Indian Ocean drainage: Brahmaputra (651,335 sq km), Ganges (1,016,124 sq km)

Major aquifers

Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 3.6 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 770 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 31.5 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

1.227 trillion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Bangladesh on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bangladesh 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bangladesh 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.