MY CITY, MY RESPONSIBILITY

“We are human beings! We are different from other living creations. We have an additional responsibility as humans, the best creation of God. However, most of the changes in the world have been occurred through the direct intervention of humans. Today alike Dhaka other cities and megacities of Bangladesh have become unsuitable for living due to human’s lack of responsibility and mismanagement of the resources and surroundings. Thus in order to make Dhaka and other cities better living places for humans, every citizen has to perform their duties properly. The rampant mismanagement of resources, wastes and other things also has to be addressed as soon as possible.” The above statement came from the inaugural activity of the 3-month campaign titled “My city, My Responsibility’ arranged by BARCIK and Poba (Bangladesh Paribesh Bachawa Andolan) at Firmgate of Dhaka to mark the world environment 2015.

The activity of the campaign was inaugurated by the chairman of Poba environmentalist Abu Naser Khan. The event was escorted by the representative of Paribesh Unnayan Society’s President Mr. Burhanuddin, Greenmind Society’s president Mr. Amir Hasan, Poba’s assistant secretary Md. Nazrul Islam, Shahin Aziz, Atiq Myrshed, coordinators of BARCIK’s coordinators Sayed Ali Biswas, ABM Touhidul Alam, Silvanus Lamin, Associate coordinator Md. Zahangir Alam, Md. Ershad Ali, Fardous Ahmed Uzzal, Rupasana Mrong.

The speakers in the event said, “As human beings we have lot of responsibility to perform for ensuring a better living place for all creatures. Some of them are social, some of them are humanitarian and some of them are moral responsibilities. We know that in a very fraction of second lots of things happen in our towns and states.” They went on saying, “The air, the environment, the soils and water and some other elements that are crucial for our survival are being polluted day by day. The nature and other creatures are at stake today. The pollution in environment, killing of biodiversity, adultery in foods and tree choopping are being done in continuous process.” The speakers said, ‘As active citizens we want to get rid from this pollution. We want to breath the fresh air, have fresh water for drinking. We do not want to pull water from underground using fuel which emits carbon. We want to see that environment friendly trees are planted in our rood, parks, and fallow lands. Birds, pests and other living organisms will take shelter in those trees. We want to ensure that all citizens of Bangladesh enjoy security both in movement and living. We want to see diversity in nature and life of humans.”

Symbolically cleaning the wastes of the Firmagte Park the speakers said, “The Park is the only open space for the inhabitants of the area but for lack of good management the park has become unsuitable for recreation. Wastes are thrown here and there and there are no dustbins in the parks where people can through their wastes. There are lots of spaces where tree could be planted but no initiative is seen to beautify the park. Even there is no toilet in the park.” They said, “It is not only the responsibility of the City Corporation but all the citizens. People should make effort to make the park a better one. The speakers demanded to set a toilet and place dustbins in the park so that people can use them and make the park a clean and fresh one. “We started the campaign today and we will continue it. We will move to school, college, hospital, park, university, playground and canals and wetlands to create awareness among people so that they could become responsible to make their surrounding neat and clean through their own intervention” said by the speakers. They said, “We will involve and try to incorporate City Mayors, Councilors and civil society to run the campaign. The main objective of the campaign is to ensure a livable city for all creations.

We expect that government will take substantial initiative to solve the problems of its citizens. However, it is not only the responsibility of the government or City Corporation to free the city from pollution and make it green one but also the responsibility of us all. If we are all aware about our responsibility to protect the environment it will not be difficult to make a healthy and livable place for all.”