| Author | Sultana, Haque |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-04-11 |
| Subject(s) | Environmental management--Bangladesh
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The rapid urbanization in Bangladesh is continuously pressurizing the urban
environment and has resulted in its deterioration. These environmental issues are
required to be focused in the secondary cities or municipalities because these
institutions are having lack of managerial and technical capabilities in environmental
aspect as well as its overall management. An appropriate Environmental Management
System (EMS) can release the pressure on environment and provide better quality of
services efficiently. To develop an appropriate EMS, it is required to determine the
quality of services and the existing environmental issues and its management.
A household survey, interviews of the municipality personnel and in-depth interview
of the key personnel in different level are used to determine the quality of services
and environmental issues and the capacity.
From the household survey, maintenance of road, bridge and culvert the respondents
have satisfaction level 40.0 to 59.0 percent whereas the other services have
satisfaction level 0 to 19.0 percent. The respondents also identified waste
management and drainage as high level problems in the Bogra municipality at present
whereas waste management and mosquito are medium level and air pollution and
traffic congestion are low-level problems. In the case of sanitation, most of the
respondents reported that they have their own sanitation and most sanitary outlets are
connected with open drain. This gives rises to drainage and mosquito problems. The
community people are willing to pay different amount for different type of services,
which varies from Tk 2.0 to Tk 150.0. The willingness to pay indicates that the
respondents are interested to get the quality service by giving money to municipality.
Unfortunately, the municipality does not provide enough effort to collect taxes for
providing services.
Based on the secondary information and the in-depth interview it is found that the
existing organogram, in terms of number of personnel and the qualifications required,
does not match with the environmental problems and issues that need to be addressed
by the municipality. Although the total allocated number of human resources is
sufficient, they need to be allocated properly. In most of the municipalities and also it
is needed to improve the qualifications requirement to provide better environmental
services. The research findings suggest that giving training is not enough. Trained
personnel need to be placed in proper positions from which they can be utilized their
training for improving the environmental services required by the residents. The
interrelationships among the different section within the municipality and also with
other organization need to revise for making common platform to work together.
The provision of skilled human resources, the institutional capacity, clear definitions
of environmental issues and policies are identified as the main barriers for
municipalities. Revision of organizational structures, integration of different level of
organizations, revision of organogram and training program for the unskilled
personnel, appropriate policy and law enforcement are identified from the in-depth
interview and respondents' suggestion for overcoming the barriers for municipalities
to develop a better environmental management system. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Amin, A. T. M. Nurul |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sajor, Edsel ;Shipin, Oleg |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The Government of the Netherlands |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |