Bangladesh will have to spend a colossal amount in the next 10 years to help 30 million victims of the rising sea level.
‘According to the health ministry’s estimate, the government will have to spend at least $2,081 million between 2010 and 2021 because of the rising sea level,’ said Iqbal Kabir, coordinator of the Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit of the health ministry, on Thursday.
He said that if the sea level rises by one metre, the frequency of natural calamities will increase, which will multiply the health hazards of the people and thus entail more expenditure in the health sector.
He made these comments while addressing a press conference at the concluding session of the three-day South-East Asia Regional High Level Preparatory Meeting on Health Impacts of Climate Change, organised by the health ministry and World Health Organisation.
Kabir also said the government would have to build new hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of patients, and feared that the hospitals which have been repaired might again be damaged by natural disasters.
Health minister AFM Ruhal Haque said the frequency of cyclones and floods has increased because of the rise in global temperature and climate change.
‘The rise in global temperature, receding glaciers and rising sea levels are due to increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as a result of human activities,’ he said.
The adverse effect of climate change on human health is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century, said Ruhal Haque, but the issue was not addressed properly in the Cop-15 in Copenhagen last year.
‘There is an urgent need for more emphasis on health-related issues at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and similar international forums in the future,’ he added.
The minister read out the Dhaka Declaration of the three-day conference which urged all member states to continue to provide leadership and specific climate change-related technical guidance to collectively raise the health concerns while deciding climate change-related policies in the national and international forums.
A total of 55 participants from 11 WHO South East Asian Region countries attended the meeting.
Health secretary Humayun Kabir and WHO’s acting country director Serguei Diorditsa were present, along with other dignitaries.
