Poverty and local environment nexus : evidence from two slum communities in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh | |
| Author | Moral, Md. Jahan Boksh |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-05-01 |
| Subject(s) | Environmental degradation--Bangladesh--Rajshahi Poverty--Bangladesh--Rajshahi Slums--Bangladesh--Rajshahi |
| Note | A thesis submitted in paiiial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | It is increasingly acknowledged that poverty and environment are correlated. Poverty affects environmental conditions. In the same way environment also affects poverty, because a degraded environment greatly impact the poor. The poor tends to become poorer as the environment conditions degrade. Owing to scarcity of job, hardcore poor households of both communities live in low-lying land with vulnerable and unhygienic spaces and inadequate services. Due to these conditions they also suffer during natural hazards such as flood, which expose them to health hazards that reduce their savings and productivity. Conversely because of insufficient services they pollute the neighborhood environment by illegal dumping of wastes and discharging of wastewater. The principal objective of this study has been to know the relationship between poverty and local environmental degradation while examining the present involvement of the government in improving poverty and environment condition. To avoid the hypothetical discover, the study analyze the UNDP/GOB project activities. The UNDP/GOB project entitled Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation is one of the biggest projects for alleviating urban poverty along with improving their local environment. There are many successful activities of this project such as community based micro-credit, sanitation as well as drinking water. It has also future plan to manage other issues of local environment not unlike solid waste management particularly community based solid waste management, road construction, road lighting, finance for housing, land cooperation for solving the problem of land title as well as to build wastewater treatment plant. The study is undertaken by acquiring primary data from the field survey that employing a structure questionnaire and gathered information on P-E nexus with emphasis on poverty and environment. Head of poor household or behalf of HH, a member are used as respondents. At the same time two-round Delphi techniques apply to attain experts opinion on issues, consequences and potential resolution of poverty environment (P-E) nexus. Government officers, Non-government organization officers, university professors, and politicians were undertaken as respondents for thesis purpose. They think that lack of job is the fundamental cause of poverty that will make the poor bound to existing in vulnerable and unhygienic spaces with deficient services. They also observe that it is possible to resolve the problem through providing home-based work by additional interventions for training in income generation in addition to community based management parallel to labor intensive low-cost housing factory or sanitation factory. All of these activities will facilitate to reduce poverty with improvement of local environment. Two scenarios in the nexus have been established from theoretical viewpoint as well as hypothetical scrutiny; these are: One, Environmental ScenariosA Lot of environmental problems such as improper solid waste management, drainage, housing and land title persist in the communities. It is possible to solve these problems by stimulating poor people by providing environmentally linked jobs within their communities where the problems are persistent. This involvement will produce income generation. Simultaneously, their environmental conditions will be better. Like solid waste management it is possible to involve the poor in the promotion of waste collection and separation at source. These will produce income generation to reduce poverty besides in addition to their local environment. Two, Poverty Scenario--Poverty itself is a great problem that is clearly visible in both study areas. But the survey results suggest that it is possible to alleviate poverty through producing earning opportunities. For instance, home based work, labor-intensive industries or soft loan for business can do a lot in this respect. All of these actions do not require large amount of finance. Finally, the study recommends a set of policies on P-E (Poverty-Environment) nexus emphasis on reducing urban poverty along with improving local environment at different levels. |
| Year | 2005 |
| 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. N. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Banasopit Mekvichai;Vilas Nitivattananon |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The Royal Netherlands Government |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |