Across centuries, people of the haor region lived by the cycle of water for generations, rather than by the calendar. Ways of life were shaped by when water arrived, how long it lingered, and how gently it retreated. The dominant livelihood activities—farming and fishing—followed the same rhythms of the water cycle, guided by a collective understanding that land is never permanent and therefore would have to be used cautiously, and for a limited time span. Seasonal paths, temporary homes, and agricultural practices reflected an acceptance of limits, informed by memories of past water cycles and anticipation of the next.
Today, that shared understanding no longer guides how the haor is used. Structures are built as if water will not return. Shared stewardship has eroded and regulatory oversight has weakened, enabling intensified extraction. Haors are increasingly treated as fixed assets rather than shared inheritances. In this shift, the haor represents a troubling national story of Bangladesh’s wetlands and poses a direct challenge to its policy discourse. The question is, can the country re-learn how to govern its wetlands by recognising its vulnerability, impermanence, restraint, and ecological limits?
Wetlands in Bangladesh are estimated to cover 70-80 lakh hectares, roughly 50 percent of the country’s total land surface. These encompass rivers and streams, haors, freshwater lakes, baors, beels, water storage reservoirs, fish ponds, flooded cultivated fields, and estuarine systems with extensive mangrove swamps. Wetlands function as the country’s core natural infrastructure, supporting the environment, economy and biodiversity. They also act as buffers against floods and stormwater by absorbing monsoon flows. However, the benefits of having wetlands are not adequately valued within the governance processes, resulting in gaps in operational decisions, budget priorities, and enforcement practices. As a result, wetlands have become increasingly vulnerable, the scale and nature of which are now starkly visible across urban wetlands, haors, and coastal ecosystems.
Urban wetlands are deteriorating faster and more visibly than any other types of wetland in the country. Between 1999 and 2019, the total area of wetlands in Dhaka declined from 19.09 sq-km to just 5.87 sq-km, with about 22 percent disappearing in a single decade between 2010 and 2019. From a longer-term perspective, the city has lost around 60 percent of its wetlands between 1980 and 2024. A similar trend is evident in Chattogram, where wetlands covered about 23.15 percent of the total land surface in 1990 but declined to 16.46 percent by 2018. The problem extends beyond the loss of wetland area to worsening pollution. The number of pollution sources around Dhaka’s rivers have increased from 608 to 1,024 over the last five years. Dissolved oxygen levels in the Buriganga and Shitalakkhya rivers have fallen below one mg per litre—an extremely critical condition incompatible with the survival of most aquatic life forms.
Like urban wetlands, haors—another nature-based ecosystem covering around 20 lakh hectares in northeastern Bangladesh and home to approximately 1.94 crore people—are also increasingly vulnerable to ecological degradation driven by climate variability and human intervention. In the Hakaluki Haor, one of the largest wetlands in the region, the loss of waterbody area increased from 10 percent to 75 percent between 1980 and 2012. Tanguar Haor, an internationally important wetland under the Ramsar Convention (1971), is also under severe pressure, with long-term climatic stress significantly affecting local hydrology and weather patterns. Between 1980 and 2008, annual rainfall declined by about 582 mm, while the average temperature increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius, a critical shift that has significantly disrupted crop cycles, fish breeding, and seasonal water dynamics. The haor, historically known for its rich biodiversity, is now undergoing rapid degradation. Fish diversity has declined sharply from about 141 species to just 58 in two decades. Similarly, whereas five lakh birds used to find home in the haor 20 years ago, it accommodates only about one lakh birds today, indicating a severe loss of biodiversity.
Wetlands in the country’s extensive coastal region are also in a critical condition, facing intense pressure due to sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, and climate change. Sea levels are rising at a rate of 4.0-7.8 mm per year, and projections indicate that if this trend continues, around 18 percent of the country’s coastal area could be permanently submerged by the end of the century. Coastal wetlands are highly susceptible to salinity intrusion driven by cyclonic storm surges, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding. Several scientific models project that the proportion of river areas containing freshwater could decline by about 50 percent by 2050, severely affecting drinking water availability, land productivity, and biodiversity. The coastal region is also experiencing increased land erosion, flooding, waterlogging, and loss of agricultural productivity, further undermining wetland services and local livelihoods.
Paradoxically, the growing vulnerability of Bangladesh’s wetlands exists alongside a relatively strong policy framework. Wetlands are recognised in law, referenced in planning documents, and acknowledged through international commitments. The Environment Conservation Act, 1995 provides the legal basis for ecosystem protection, pollution regulation, and the declaration of environmentally sensitive areas. The Ecologically Critical Area Rules, 2016, the most explicit legal framework for wetlands in the country, outline governance structures and management responsibilities. Bangladesh is also a signatory to the Ramsar Convention, reflecting its international commitment to the “wise use” of wetlands and the maintenance of their ecological character through sustainable management. Several other policies and planning instruments—including the National Environment Policy, 2018, Jolmohal Management Policy, 2009, Delta Plan 2100, and sectoral policies such as the National Water Policy, 1999, Protection and Conservation of Fish (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, and Coastal Zone Policy, 2005—also provide a strong legal and planning basis for wetland protection.
However, this policy environment has not translated into effective protection on the ground and has failed to produce tangible outcomes. Wetland governance remains fragmented in Bangladesh, with responsibilities spread across multiple ministries and institutions, including land, water, fisheries, environment, urban development, and local government. This complex institutional arrangement struggles with clear ownership, enforceable protection, and cross-sector accountability. In practice, wetland management often suffers from inadequate staffing, limited resources, weak monitoring systems, and poor enforcement capacity, allowing degradation and pollution to continue. As a result, wetlands continue to be treated primarily as land assets to be leased, converted or reclaimed.
The question is how Bangladesh can move from recognising wetlands to actually protecting them. To do that, wetland governance must shift beyond fragmented responsibilities towards clear institutional mandates, measurable performance indicators, and consistent financing. Protection efforts also need to move from reactive responses to preventive enforcement. Urban wetlands should be safeguarded as essential drainage and flood-retention systems, while haor and coastal wetlands require management approaches that reflect their seasonal dynamics and resilience to growing climatic risks. Strengthening co-management with local communities, whose traditional knowledge once ensured restraint and balance, will also be critical.
Unless wetland protection moves beyond isolated projects to permanent systems with clear mandates, budgets and public oversight, degradation will continue. Ultimately, the future of Bangladesh’s wetlands will depend on whether policies move beyond recognition to enforcement, and whether fragmented actions give way to accountable, long-term governance.
Muhammad Muktadirul Islam Khan is principal researcher and head of consultants at the Sustainability Action Learning Lab. He can be reached at [email protected].
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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