Pinaki Roy

The fish are gone. The paddy fields have been sold. Tin roofs rust through within a couple of years, and a refrigerator bought two years ago no longer works. Along the canals of Pubail and Tongi in Gazipur, the water has turned pitch black.

Surface water in and around industrial areas along the Turag and the Shitalakkhya contains high concentrations of four harmful heavy metals, including lead, which was detected at up to 45 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organization, according to a new study.

He was standing beside a dilapidated building on the bank of the Trishuli river, watching journalists photograph and film what remained of Trishuli Bazar.

The muddy river runs through what was once a settled riverside neighbourhood in Devighat near the China-Nepal border. Its banks have been ripped open, strewn with broken concrete, stones and debris.

A catastrophic river surge has erased thriving commercial hubs near the China-Nepal border, leaving behind suffocating mud skeletal ruins, and a $4.77 billion recovery bill

Hilsa production is declining after a steady rise over two decades due to water pollution from three power plants located near the Hilsa Sanctuary, siltation of rivers and overfishing, raising concerns about the much-loved fish’s sustainability and affordability.

Over the past five decades, the Jamuna and Ganges rivers, along with the Padma formed by their confluence, have eroded about 1,585sqkm of land, according to government data. That is more than five times the combined area of Dhaka’s two city corporations.

Bangladesh could see lower Boro rice production in the coming season as climatologists warn of an exceptionally strong El Niño, which typically brings hotter and drier conditions during the crop’s growing period.