With progress made in education it is not surprising that the literacy rate of the District is well over 60 percent, Table 1.40. If this were shown by age it is certain that the greatest concentration of illiteracy is in the aged and that there may be near universal literacy ion the population under perhaps 30 years of age.

Table 1.39. Literacy rate (Chittagong District)

Table 1.40. Enrolment of primary education in Chittagong City Corporation (1981-2001)

3.3. Promote Gender Ewuality, Empowerment of Women

A major indicator of gender equality is found in school enrollment rates for boys and girls at all levels of the education system. Tale 1.41 provides the data for the past two decades for Chittagong. It shows the boys and girls enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary levels as a percent of their respective age groups. Obviously boys have higher enrollment rates than do girls. For each level we also compute the girls’ rates as a percentage of the boys’ rates. Here we see considerable progress over the past two decades on two measures. First enrollment rates grown substantially for all groups through the period. In b1981 only a third of children were in primary school. By 2001 the figure had risen to just over 50 percent . In secondary school it rose from 25 to 38 percent for boys and in tertiary education from 13 to 17 percent. Even more striking is the rise in girls’ enrollment as a percent of boy’s enrollment. In primary school it rose from 69 to 85 percent; in secondary school from 71 to 94 and in tertiary education from 77 to 91. Chittagong has come close to educational gender equality at secondary and tertiary levels, and is approaching the same in primary education.

Table 1.41. Disparity in education by gender (primary, secondary, and teriar)

As Table 1.42 shows, Chittagong has a number of girls’ schools as well as boys schools. This is part of the City’s policy to advance the education of girls.

Table 1.42. List of the education institute under Chittagong City Corporation

Table 1.43. Number of students & teachers in different Chittagong City Corporation schools

Table 1.44 shows the literacy rate for boys and girls ages 15 to 24. Again we calculate the girls’ rate as a percentage of the boy’s rate. With the above disparity in enrollment, it is to be expected that boys have somewhat higher literacy rates than girls. But the move to greater equality in enrollment is matched by greater equality in the rates of literacy. In 1981 girls’ literacy rate was only 60 percent of boys. By 2001 it had risen to 79 percent.

Table 1.44. Literacy rate of childrenin Chittagong City Corporation (Age: 15-24)

3.4. Reduce Child Mortality

The basic data on infant and child mortality for Chittagong are shown in Table 1.45. There has been some improvement in all areas over the past two decades. The next two tables, however, show that much needs to be done to improve the birthing process. Table 1.46 shows that few births take place in hospital; most are at home. Table 1.47 shows that many births are still attended by family members or untrained traditional birth attendants. The latter seems to have improved markedly between 1996 and 1997, however, raising questions about what government might have done in that time toi improve the situation.

Table 1.45. Child mortality rate in Chittagong City Corporation (Age: 0-5)

Table 1.46. delivery care, 1997

Table 1.47. Birth attendant in urban Bangladesh

A substantial program has been underway to provide basic immunizations to Chittagong’s babies. Immunizations now reach almost all newborn children and babies.

Table 1.48. Immunization coverage in Chittagong City

National Immunization Day (NID): The WHO recommends that countries which have not yet eradicated polio and/or surrounded by countries that are not polio free, should conduct at least two rounds of National Immunization Days (NIDs) each year. On these days, all children under five years of age (regardless of the child’s previous immunization status and current geographic location) should receive a dose of Oral Polio Vaccine(OPV) in each round. GOB has already conducted 12 rounds of NID on different dates. Chittagong City Corporation Report on NID coverage shows (Table 1.49) a remarkable progress against the same number of target children for each consecutive round

Table 1.49. NID coverage report

3.5. Improve Maternal Health

The basic data on maternal health are given in Tale 1.50. There has been a slight improvement in the maternal mortality rate over the past two decades. As noted above, however, much work is needed to improve birthing services.

Table 1.50. Maternal mortality rate in Chittagong City (per 1000 live birth)

The great increase in the City health budget over the past few years helps explain the improvement in maternal health. It grew by almost 30 fold since 1994. At the same time the small number of maternity hospitals, shown in Table 1.52 indicates that more needs to be done to provide better birthing services in the city

Table 1.51. Budget, Health Department of Chittagong City Corporation

Table 1.52. Health facility of Chittagong City Corporation

3.6 HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDs seems to be a new major health problem for the city. As a port city, it should be expected that a lively sex trade is to be found, raising the threat of sexually transmitted diseases, and especially of HIV/AIDS. The government recognizes the problem has conducts surveys to determine its extent. Below we provide data from two surveys, which unfortunately, indicate the weakness of the data with which the government must work. There is no record of HIV infection and only 4.5 percent report Syphilis infection, though that could be from weak data collection rather than for low incidence of the disease. Most data come from street sex workers, almost all of whom report selling sex within the past week. The customers seem to be primarily rickshaw drivers. Less than a fifth of the sex workers report using a condom in their last commercial sex act, and less two percent report consistent use of condoms. There is obviously a large task ahead in both collecting better data and training sex workers to use condoms. Table 1.53 shows a somewhat greater use of condoms among brothelr workers than among individual street workers.

The government does have an HIV prevention program to increase condom use among sex workers. Figure 1 indicates some success here, as the use of condoms among those participating is substantially higher than among those workers not participating in the program.

Table 1.53. Key indicators from the third round of serological and behavioral surveillance for HIV

Table 1.54. Key indicators from the fourth round of serological and behavioral surveillance for HIV in Bangladesh

Figure 1.1. Impact of HIV prevention program among sex workers

The government has a program to encourage pregnant women to adopt safe sex practices. It is still a relatively small program with only roughly one-fifth of pregnant women participating and as yet it has not achieved high rates of condom use. At the same time there are no reported cases of children orphaned due to AIDs.

Table 1.55. Pregnant woman and CPR in programs Chittagong City

HIV/AIDS programs and budget/organizations profile

There is a growing concern for HIV/AIDS in the international community and Bangladesh has been the recipient of large amounts of funds, especial for Non Governmental Organizations to undertake work on HIV/AIDS. In 2004 a large number of new progrjects were begun with international assistance. Five major NGOs have received a total budget of more than 32 million Thakas, and are targeting some 50,000 people, many of these transport workers, where the threat of HIV/SAIDS infection and transmission are greatest. There are also 21 additional NGO working in the area, with support from a variety of international aid organizations, both bilateral and multilateral. It will obviously take some time for these projects to have an impact. It is to be hoped, however, that the programs have begun earlier enough to preclude the emergence of the large scale problems found in other countries.

3.7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability

State of the environment

Like most developing countries, Bangladesh faces the whole spectrum of environmental problems. These can be grouped under urban, rural industrial and natural categories. In urban areas, environmental problems include air and noise pollution from vehicular and industrial sources. Disposal of solid waste is another serious problem. Due to high population density in urban areas, crowding has become a major problem that severely restricts access to civic facilities. Intrusion of saline water in coastal areas, construction of roads, embankments and polders are also responsible for degrading the rural decline in soil productivity and water pollution. Many small industries set up in rural areas are also causing air, water and land pollution. Problem of potable water supply and sanitation is causing health hazards and biological contamination of the environment in both urban and rural areas. Conversion of forest and wetlands into poor quality agricultural land is a major problem in many parts of the country.

The growing industrial base is the main source of land and water pollution of the country. So far, most of the industries have been dumping their effluent directly into nearby water bodies without treatment. But the fact that many of the toxic chemicals dumped on the land or into the water are not biodegradable and that they may find their way into human food chain is a matter of serious concern. Many industries are emitting significant amount of SPM and environmentally damaging gases directly through the chimneys.

In the natural category, the main concerns are depletion of non-renewable and renewable resources. The country has already lost most of its natural forests which has now come down to a size of about 5-7 percent of the total land area (World Bank, 1997) this is destroying the natural balance of the ecosystem as well as causing permanent destructions of habitats. As a result, some previously abundant species are becoming threatened, endangered or even extinct. Similar situation prevails in natural wetlands and grasslands.

To improve management of the environment, the government must start regulating access, withdrawal and use of natural and environmental resources. In 1995, government of Bangladesh enacted the Environmental Protection Act and the provisions of the Act came into effect through publication of the Environmental Protection Rules, august 1997 by the Department of Environment (DOE).

To improve the quality of environment many international conventions and treaties were signed. Some of them have been ratified. These treaties and conventions will play an important role in shaping up environmental awareness in Bangladesh. From the International convention for the Protection of birds, 1950 and the International Plant Protection Convention, 1951 to august 21 and Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, Bangladesh is a party to many international environmental treaties.

Ecosystem diversity

The topography of Bangladesh is mostly flat except some hilly areas in the eastern, north and northeastern part of the country. The flat lands are formed by floodplains and delta of two major rivers: the Brahmaputra and the Pandma. The shifting nature of rivers and tributaries threatens settlements and riparian ecosystems and complicates infrastructure surges endanger the coastal ecosystems and settlements. The tropical climate of the country, divided in six seasons, has distinct wet and dry seasons. In some years rainfall may be unusually high or low causing fold or drought that particularly affect food production. About one-third of the land area is less than 20 feet above the mean sea level. All these together have resulted in differences in the composition of vegetation and distribution of species in the land and water of Bangladesh creating diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Forest resources

Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has lost more than 50 percent of its natural forests. Only 6 percent of the total land area, approximately 1 million hectares, is under natural forest cover in the country. This is comprised of deciduous forests, evergreen forests, mangrove forests and scattered patches of forests. Per-capita forestland has declined from 0.035 ha in 1969 to 0.02 ha in 1990. Depletion of natural forests in Bangladesh, at 3.3 percent per year, is highest in Asia and the Middle East and the third highest in the whole world after Haiti and Jamaica. Increasing population and landlessness, conversion of forestland to competing uses, illegal logging of state forests, logging for fuel wood by rural people for subsistence, and over-exploitation have all depleted the forest resources of the country.

The impact of such alarming rate of deforestation is multifaceted. Decrease in timber and other forest products incur direct economic loss. People living in the rural and hilly areas who depend on forest for subsistence are affected. Deforestation is also responsible for decrease in water holding capacity, increased soil erosion, and loss of habitat and biodiversity. The cost of these impacts on the economy was 1 percent of GDP in 1990. the contribution of the forestry sector to GDP is about 3 to 4 percent while the sector directly employs about 2 percent of the labor force.

Forest ecosystems

Three distinct types of forest ecosystems can be identified in the country;

• Mixed evergreen hill forests;
• Mangrove forest; and
• Plain land forest.

About 75 percent of the growing stock in these forests are located in natural forests and 25 percent in plantations. Overexploitation, shifting cultivation, and improper grant permits to log steep slopes are primary threats to deforestation in these forests.

Water Budge

Bangladesh is a land of water. Annually the country receives between 1,000 to 5,000 millimeters of rain in various regions. The intricate network of over 200 large and small river discharge about 175 billion cubic meter of water to the Bay of Bengal. Seasonal rainfall and inflow through two of the worlds largest rivers the Ganges and the Brahmaputra are the main sources of water of Bangladesh. The river Meghna also contributes a significant amount of water in the wet season. Rivers of Bangladesh carry water from a collective catchments are area of about 1.7 million square kilometers, only 8 percent percent of which lies within Bangladesh.

Table 1.56. National Water Plan groundwater balance mm3

Figure 1.2. Regional graound water balance

Water supply

Availability of safe drinking water is an indicator of development. Country wide, about 50 percent of the urban population and nearly 85 percent of the rural population have access to drinking water supply. Most of the drinking water comes from groundwater sources. According to LGED groundwater table will be within the suction limit of eight meters in 65-70 percent of the country by 2,000, which used to be 75 percent in early 90’s. This may affect more than one hundred thousand hand pumps out of about 2.5 million hand pumps in the rural areas. Urban areas already depend on deep tube wells for supply of potable water. But due to rapid decline in recharge area over the local groundwater basins and excessive withdrawal rate, piezometric level is falling in many parts of the country.

The four major cities- Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna - need to develop surface water based alternatives in order to satisfy their long term needs. Karnafuli is a future source of water supply in Chittagong.

Table 1.57. Regional distribution of irrigated/irrigable land

Land and Resources

In terms of usage of land, 13 percent of our total land are forests, 52 percent are cropped land, 27 percent are rivers and other water bodies and urban land, 4 percent are fallow land, and other 4 percent are waste land.

Figure 1.3. Land usage

Natural Resources

Natural resources are of two types: renewable and non-renewable resources. Major renewable resources in Bangladesh are Forestry. Forestry in Bangladesh is mainly state-controlled but there are horticulture estates tea estates and rubber plantations under private ownership. State forests are classified into several categories: Unclassed State Forests under the control of the Land Ministry; Vested Forests, forests managed by the Forest Department but owned by public or private organizations; Acquired Forests, forest lands acquired by the forest Department for plantation purposes; protected and Reserve Forests, natural forest under the management and control of the forest Department; and Natural Parks and wildlife, natural sanctuaries for plants, birds and other animals, under the management and control of the Forest Department. Forestry contributes 3.19 percent of total value-added of GDP (1994-95).

Table 1.58. Forestation of land

Table 1.59. Forest area in Chittagon

Table 1.60. Environmental sustaionability in Chittagong

Figure 1.4. Plliting Industries

Environment Policy

The National Environment policy (NEMAP) was launched in 1992 and had the following objectives:

• Sustenance of the ecological balance and overall progress of the country through protection and improvement of the environment
• Protection of the country against natural disasters
• Identification and control activities that pollute and degrade the environment
• Environmentally sound development in all sectors
• Sustainable, long – term and environmentally sound use of all resources
• Active association with environment – related international initiative to the extent possible

Forest policy of Bangladesh

The forest policy of Bangladesh followed the political subdivision that occurred with the end of the British Empire, and then the winning of independence from Pakistan. The Forest Policy of 1894 was felt inappropriate for the needs of Pakistan after independence and was replaced by the Forest Policy of 1955. Its salient futures were as follow:

• Forestry should be given a high priority in the national development plan.
• Sound management should be extended to private forests.
• Necessary powers should be obtained to control and use under a coordinated program of soil conservation and utilization in areas subject to or threatened with soil erosion.
• Public support should be enlisted for the execution of forest policy.
• Forests area should be classified for on the basis of their utility and objectives.
• The beneficial aspects of forestry should be given precedence over the commercial.
• Forest area should be increased by measures such as reserving 10 percent of land irrigate by cannel and 10 percent of water for raising irrigated plantations; growing tees along canal banks, sides of roads, railway tracks, wasteland, and so on; encouraging farm forestry on a cooperative basis by village communities in compact blocks of cropland set apart for the purpose.
• Timber harvesting techniques should be improved (a special provision for then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh).
• All forests should be managed under working plans.
• A properly constituted forest service of fully trained staff should be made responsible for the implementation of forest policy.
• Forest research and education should be organized along proper lines.
• ildlife should be protected, and their habitats protected and improved.

This classic forest policy, with an additional focus of the watershed protection role of forest that emerged at the international level in the late 1980s, still emphasized commercial forestry at the expense of conservation. The recognition of people's rights has also appeared, but, further than `enlisting public support` - something which, with regard to the Chittagong Hills Tracks, the government has signally failed to do – there is no evidence of any implementation of a more participatory and accountable forest policy.

Water and Salt Budget

No significant vertical stratification in salinity was observed and a single layer system is conceived. Results of the water and salt budgeting are shown:

Budget for the Karnaphuli river estuary

NP Budget

The one layer single box DIP and DIN budgets for the Karnaphuli River estuary system are shown below:

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ADDITIONAL URBAN INDICATORS

1. Air quality

• Urban Air Auality

Ambient air quality standards: current ambient air quality standards for Bangladesh are defined in the Environmental Conservation Rules, 1997. The current standards are presented in Table 1.61 of Appendix.

The department of Environment in currently in the process of revising the ambient air quality standards. A proposal to adopt UN NAAQS (primary standards only) as long term ambient air quality objectives has been approved by stakeholders and now in the final stage of approval. For lead in ambient air, the WHO guideline level will be adopted instead of the US NAAQS.

• Emissions standards

1. Mobile

Schedule 6 and 7 of Environment conservation Rules, 1997, set out emission standards for mobile sources. The schedules are presented in Table 1.61 and 1.62 of Appendix.

The Department of Environment is currently revising the emissions standards for motor vehicles. A proposal to adopt Euro 2 standards for new petrol and CNG vehicles and Euro 1 standards for diesel vehicles has been approved in terms of Bangladesh – 2 and Bangladesh – 1 respecting by stakeholders and will be submitted for Government approval during 2003. Emission standards for in – service vehicles have also been established by the Department of Environment and now in the final stage of Government approval.

2. Stationary

he Environment Conservation Rules, 1997, also set out Schedules and associated Rules for emission standards for discharges from industry. In general, these regulations focus on TSP mercury, SO2, sulphuric acid, halogens and halogen acids. The emission limits are se t in terms of wt per unit volume of gaseous discharge. Table 1.63 in Appendix lists some of the standards. There are other standards set for industrial boilers and the likes of.

• Ambient air quality levels andtrends

The basic air quality monitoring data provided in appendix 1 indicates that ambient concentrations of SPM exceed the current standards on a regular basis and there are some cases where the SO2 and NOx standards are also exceeded.

Given the heavy reliance on the use of diesel vehicles for transportation in Chittagong, the age of these vehicles and the poor standards of maintenance, it is not surprising that SPM levels are high.

The Department of Environment Air Quality Management Project has commenced the establishment of an air quality monitoring network in Dhaka. Preliminary results have shown that ambient concentrations of PM 10 and PM2.5 are high during the non-monsoon period but reduce significantly during the monsoon. Similar trends are likely to be present in Chittagong.

• Impact of Air Pollution

At present there is a limited understanding of ambient air quality in Chittagong. The monitoring undertaken by the Department of environment in Chittagong indicates that ambient concentrations of PM are likely to exceed standards. The sources of air pollution and general conditions are similar to Dhaka.

• Enforcement & Control Strategies

Department of Environment carried out some assessment of emissions from industrial premises as part of the environmental clearance program. The Bangladesh Road transport authority has a legal mandate to ensure gross pollution vehicles do not operate on the road network. However, capacity to carry out this mandate is limited.

The Department of Environment’s air Quality Management Project (AQMP) commenced work in Dhaka in 2000 and is developing the air quality management capacity.

The AQMP is currently implementing vehicle emissions reduction programs including inspection and maintenance, mechanic training and public awareness in Dhaka and is expected to be extended to Chittagong in 2004.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority is developing capacity for control of gross polluting vehicles in Dhaka through the Dhaka Urban transport Project. This capacity may also be used to extend the BRTA’s control program in Chittagong.

Government of Bangladesh is also promoting the use of CNG in urban areas across Bangladesh. Current focus of the program is on Dhaka. However the first CNG filling station in Chittagong was established in June 2003.

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DATA APPENDIX

1. Air quality

Table 1.61. Results of ambient air quality analysis at various industrail areas in Chittagong

Table 1.62. Results of ambient air quality analysis at various commercial areas in Chittagong

Table 1.63. Air quality at Chittagong WASA Mode-1, Agrabad Commercial Area (St.-1) 2002

Table 1.64. Air quality at Nasirabad Industrial Area during investigation period

Table 1.65. Air quality at Kalurghat Industrial Area during investigation period

Table 1.66. Air Qqality at Traffic Point GEC, CDA Avenue during investigation period

Table 1.67. Air quality at Chandgaon Residental Area during investigation period

Table 1.68. Ambient air quality standards for residental area in Chittagong

Table 1.69. Average suspended airbone particulate matter(μg/m3) during the collection periods in urban areas of Bangladesh

Table 1.70. Average elemental carbon (μg/m3) in the fine fraction of airborne particulate matter during the collection Periods in urban areas of Bangladesh

Table 1.71. Information of four Department of Environment monitoring sites

Table 1.72. Chittagong City

2. Wateuality

Table 1.73. Data shows the recorded values of all parameters with the comparisons of EQSB, Halim 2002, 1997 and WHO 1993

Table 1.74. Comparative study of water quality at intake point, supply level & subscriber level with the comparison of Halim, 2002, EQSB 1997 & WHO 1993

Inner and outer segments of the Karnaphuli River estuary were sampled during the late monsoon of 2002 for nutrients (NO3, NO2, NH4+, PO4, and SiO2) and other water quality parameters as a part of an ongoing material flux study. Water samples were colleted, p[reserved, transported and analyzed following standard procedure. Average from several samples for each parameter was used in this budgeting exercise. Rainfall data were collected from Bangladesh Meteorological Department and discharge values were interpolated from a previous work in the same estuary. Evaporation was calculated from other atmospheric data. Rainfall, estimated evaporation and interpolated discharge were 83.52, 34.26 and 6.47 million m3/day respectively. Groundwater exchange and outfall were assumed to be negligible. Salinity and nutrient data used in this budgeting exercise are shown in Table 1.75.

Table 1.75. Chemical composition of wager samples from Karnapuli River estuary