The World Bank is lending 250 million dollars to Bangladesh to increase private sector involvement in environmental friendly activities and strengthen environmental management. The loan was approved by the World Bank on Thursday. In a press release, the organization has given details about this.

The loan under the International Development Association program will be used to reduce pollution and increase administrative and technical capacity to enforce environmental laws under the ‘Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation’ project.

The proceeds of this loan will be used to develop an eco-friendly credit guarantee scheme for eco-friendly investments in certain sectors and to reduce air pollution. Apart from this, a part of this loan will be used for setting up four vehicle testing centres, e-waste management and water quality monitoring centres. It has been said that 46,000 vehicles can be tested annually in these four vehicle testing centers and 3,500 tonnes of waste can be processed annually through the e-waste management center, through which it will be possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million metric tonnes annually from certain areas. .

Bangladesh will get 30 years with a five-year grace period to repay this loan.
Jiang Ru, senior environmentalist of the World Bank and head of this project, said, “World Bank estimates say that air pollution and the presence of lead in the air are responsible for one-fifth of all deaths in Bangladesh in 2019. 12 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP is being wasted due to environmental pollution.

Under this project, for the first time, a continuous water quality testing network will be established at 22 points of different rivers in Dhaka. Apart from this, monitoring centers will be set up in various industrial areas to monitor whether waste treatment is being done according to the rules, the World Bank said.