In today's world, pollution has become the major enemy of mankind. In Bangladesh, the present environmental condition is far from a state equilibrium. Severe air, water, garbage pollution, and food waste are threatening human health, ecosystems, and the economic growth of the country.
According to an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranking report, Bangladesh is ranked the second worst country in curbing environmental pollution. This fact is alarming and provoked not only the government but also other non-government organizations to take adequate steps to reduce the country’s environmental pollution.
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A brief look into ‘BD Clean’
BD Clean founder Farid Uddin once saw an empty garbage bin owned by Dhaka City Corporation. He was surprised to find heaps of garbage surrounding it despite it being empty. From that, he thought to himself that if people are not aware, giving only so many garbage bins will not yield a fruitful result. On the evening of June 2, 2016, he discussed this issue with his close friends. That same night, 24 people joined together in a cleaning campaign and cleaned an area from Shahbag to Kawran Bazar, Dhaka. BD clean was founded the next day. BD Clean is a non-governmental, non-political, voluntary citizen’s platform for creating awareness and motivating people about cleanliness.
BD Clean’s slogan is “Let Cleanliness start with me.” Their main goal is to build a clean and sanitary Bangladesh by increasing the awareness of the use of garbage bins to change people’s habit of throwing trash anywhere. At first, chief coordinator Farid Uddin had to take all the cost of BD Clean on his shoulder. Today, the district council is responsible for all the expenses in operating their activities.
One of the most notable features of BD Clean is that all members must obey their constitutional civil duties. No one blames one another or the state to avoid civil duty. Every member believes in compliance with all the laws prevailing in the country. They are encouraged to motivate other people in their locality to create awareness about cleanliness. Bangladeshi people of any age who wish to give willing labor are eligible to be a member of BD Clean.
BD Clean at work
Photo by BD Clean
Activities of BD Clean
BD Clean has a scheduled weekly clean up where they target a specific area for cleaning. Before every clean up, all volunteers read an oath and take pictures for documentation.
BD Clean has four target clean up stages that they believe will help lead the country towards a sustainable and clean environment. They aim to start off cleaning at the division level from the year 2016 to 2017. They will be moving to the district level from years 2017 to 2018, the sub-districts level from 2018 to 2019, and the village level come years 2019 to 2020.
As of today, they are focused in cleaning all the districts in Bangladesh. They raise awareness by writing blogs and posting through all social media.
Recently, BD Clean organized a twelve-week cleaning operation with the University of Dhaka. More than 1500 volunteers were gathered together to clean up 121 targeted areas in the district level.
In Bangladesh, environmental awareness is not a common concept. But BD Clean members are motivated to change people’s ways. They use social media to encourage people by inviting them to awareness camps and activities. Everyone connects with each other to attend weekly meetings. Committee members discuss which specific areas the group wants to cover and which tools and techniques they use for cleaning.
BD Clean knows that raising awareness is not enough to solve their country’s cleanliness problems. They believe every citizen should take an active step in protecting their environment.
Visit ‘BD Clean” at:
https://www.facebook.com/BDcleanup/