Fashionable Rivers: Social Inequalities and Pollution in Dhaka
Dr Sonia Hoque, 19 February 2025 14.00 GMT Online
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Once celebrated as the “Venice of the East” for its vibrant waterways, Dhaka’s rivers now bear the brunt of severe pollution, driven by untreated industrial wastewater, raw sewage, and solid waste from a bustling city of 20 million. This talk delves into the social inequalities tied to this environmental crisis, focusing on how pollution disproportionately impacts low-income riverbank communities. Through ‘river diaries’—a combination of river use observations, water quality monitoring, and household surveys—we uncover the daily struggles and adaptations of these communities, from women washing clothes at riverbanks to children swimming in deceptively clean monsoon waters. Highlighting the environmental cost of Dhaka’s thriving garment industry, the talk presents actionable insights for prioritizing investments in water treatment infrastructure and protecting the most vulnerable populations today and in the decades ahead.
Dr Sonia Hoque is an environmental social scientist, currently working as a Senior Research Associate in Water Security and Society for the REACH programme at Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment – University of Oxford. Sonia is part of the core leadership team of the ‘SafePani’ model – a collaboration between the REACH programme, the Government of Bangladesh, UNICEF and HYSAWA to reform the institutional design, financing and information systems on rural drinking water services in Bangladesh.
Drawing on theories of human-environment interactions, Sonia’s research focuses on the nature, drivers and distribution of water risks related to drinking water services in rural areas and small towns in Bangladesh as well as urban river pollution linked to the global fashion industry.
Coming soon –
The Water Diaries: Living with the Global Water Crisis in Bangladesh and Kenya
Cyclones, flash floods, droughts, and pollution batter the aspirations of people living at the sharp end of water insecurity. By charting the daily water use behaviour of people in Kenya and Bangladesh for a year, this book explores the intersecting drivers of global water risks and the spatial and seasonal inequalities. It critically reviews existing policy and institutional design, arguing for a new architecture in allocating risks and responsibilities fairly and effectively between government, communities, enterprises, and water users.