Photos

PHOTOS: Devastating Pollution in Bangladesh

Affects of industrialization stand clearly throughout Bangladesh's cities, villages and rural communities. Factories discharge untreated chemicals into rivers, which in turn affect natural reservoirs, forests and agriculture. Pollution can be seen crusting river banks. Workers develop asthma from breathing in harsh particles and harmful fumes.

These are just some of the horrors documented by Probal Rashid, a photographer from the newly developing area of Gazipur, Bangladesh. Rashid has witnessed dramatic changes throughout his life related to the industrialization of his country. The Gazipur area was once instrumental in rice production, but it has become steadily more industrial, as well as polluted, over the past fifteen years.

"I noticed how completely pristine, rural areas were swallowed up, how natural water reservoirs became poisonous, how extremely fertile agricultural land became unproductive along with devastation of natural forest," the photographer told weather.com.

Rashid explained that he met many young factory workers, some only teenagers, in unsafe, polluted conditions. Rashid told the story of a thirteen year-old girl who spent ten hours a day working in the polluted brickfield with her mother. The girl developed asthma due to her polluted surroundings. Rashid also saw teenage boys working with iron oxide sans protective gear.

In addition to the pollution crisis, Bangladesh has often been called one of the places most vulnerable to climate change devastation. The country already sees a disproportionately high number of natural disasters, including tropical cyclones, mudslides, flood and drought.

Rashid's photographs draw attention to the problem as well as its human victims. He sees his project as a cry for help for his country. "Climate change is a global issue," Rashid told Wired.com. "Bangladesh is the victim. So to mitigate this problem in Bangladesh is the resposibility of the global community."

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