DHAKA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Projecting the adverse impacts of overpopulation, Bangladesh Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed Wednesday said the country's population must be kept under control to avert social disasters, private news agency UNB reported.

    He called upon government, non-government and voluntary organizations as well as the people of all walks of life to help attain the country's relevant targets of reducing population growth.

    The Chief Adviser made the call while inaugurating a program jointly organized by the Bangladesh Department of Family Planning and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Dhaka marking the World Population Day 2007.

    He said Bangladesh is one of the densely-populated countries in the world with over 140 million people. Over 900 people are now living in every square kilometer area.

    The population growth in Bangladesh is still very high and if it is not controlled, sustainable development and social stability of the country will be at stake, he said.

    "If the population boom cannot be controlled, there will be huge pressure on this small country having limited resources. The standard of life will fall, employment opportunities will get reduced and arable and forest lands will decrease rapidly," he told the function.

    The Chief Adviser further said meeting the demand of food, housing, education and health services would become harder while the environment and ecology would be endangered if the current population growth cannot be checked.

    The Chief Adviser said many countries in the world have reached the pinnacle of progress by keeping their population under control and utilizing it properly. "We also want to march towards the same goal by turning our population into human resources," he added.

    The population of the South Asian country is increasing by some 1.8 million every year with a growth of 1.43 percent, according to data released by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.