Clean water is one of those subjects that cannot be answered from a desk. At Jahangirnagar University it is studied in a laboratory, in a hatchery and out on rivers across the country.
Facilities
The Department of Environmental Sciences reports an Environmental Research and Testing Laboratory and a Water Research Centre focused on wastewater treatment. Its research areas include water science, groundwater modelling, water pollution, aquatic chemistry and water resources management. The Wazed Miah Science Research Centre adds shared analytical capability, including water-quality assessment.
What the field studies found
- Water quality and metal pollution in the Ganges River.
- Water characteristics and heavy metal contamination in the Sangu–Matamuhuri rivers.
- Microplastics in water, sediments and aquatic organisms from the Pasur and Buriganga rivers, and their presence in freshwater fish.
These studies help identify pollution pressures and the risks they pose to aquatic environments and to people. Zoology faculty add another angle, examining how fish respond to environmental stressors including microplastics, wastewater, pesticides and endocrine-disrupting compounds, work supported by the department's fish hatchery complex.
Cleaning up
Treatment research is just as practical. University researchers have worked on wastewater treatment using aquatic plants, on phytoremediation, and on pollution mitigation more broadly. Closer to home, faculty have studied solid waste generation on the campus itself and the development of a suitable management plan.
Sharing the results
Findings are shared through the Jahangirnagar University Environmental Bulletin and the Bangladesh Journal of Environmental Research, both published by the Department of Environmental Sciences, and taught in courses such as Hydrology and Water Resource Management, Aquatic Ecology, Limnology and Oceanography, and Biomonitoring of Pollution.