News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Climate experts and academics at a discussion on Sunday said that Bangladesh would require collective efforts, fund and skilled manpower to implement the National Adaptation Plan, once finalised, to combat the impacts of climate change.
They also emphasised the need for smart technology, resilient infrastructures to mitigate loss and damage due to the climate change that has already started.
They said this at a workshop on the NAP hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change held in the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on the day.
Environment minister Md Shahab Uddin was present at the programme as the chief guest.
‘NAP has properly identified the problems and gave the best solutions. Now its effectiveness will depend on implementation,’ the minister said, seeking cooperation from all development partners. He hoped that NAP would be effective for combating the climate change impacts.
Emeritus professor and NAP formulation project consortium team leader Ainun Nishat stated that the government would require a NAP implementation road map too.
The Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services is leading the NAP (2023-50) preparing project since 2019 funded by the United Nations Development Programme.
In the drafted NAP, a total of 113 interventions were recommended including 90 high priority and 23 moderate priority interventions that would need a total of Tk 20,037 billion for 27 years, observed CEGIS executive director Malik Fida A Khan.
‘The NAP has been incorporated into the Delta Plan of the government and the SDG of the United Nations,’ he said.
There were a number of good plans in Bangladesh to implement, but their implementations were largely ignored, said the speakers at the discussion.
Environment secretary Farhina Ahmed informed the workshop that the government was committed to giving its top priority over climate change issues as it was a challenge for the country. ‘Climate eats up a significant success once it is achieved,’ she said.
According to the secretary, the NAP will protect about 1.1 million hectares of crop land from flood, tidal, sea level rise and salinity. She added that about 30 million people in the city area would be benefited by the development of drainage management and heat wave, while 10 per cent of transportation costs would be reduced.
According to the environment minister, Bangladesh had already implemented 800 climate change-related projects costing $480 million. He stressed climate resilient infrastructural development.
State minister for environment Habibun Nahar said that people of southern Bangladesh were facing food shortage, potable water crisis and health challenges. ‘We have not much time to waste. Take immediate implementation plan,’ she said.
Senior secretary to the water resources ministry Kabir Bin Anwar, Economic Relations Division secretary Sharifa Khan, national project director of NAP preparation project Md Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury and UNDP Bangladesh residential representative Stefan Liller, among others, spoke at the programme.
