News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Rabindra University, Bangladesh vice-chancellor professor Md Shah Azam was present as a session chair of the National Drought Convention, according to a press release.
The vice-chancellor said that drought was one of the most damaging and costly natural disasters in the world. Drought severely affects agriculture, the economy, water resources, the environment and society.
Climate change is considered a serious problem in the global context. Bangladesh is not out of it. The country is constantly facing various climatic problems, one of which is drought.
He also said that Bangladesh was one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Almost every year, the country experiences a series of natural disasters, such as tropical cyclones, storm surges, coastal erosion, floods and droughts, which cause massive losses of life and property and threaten development activities.
He pointed out the relevance of poet Rabindranath Tagore’s social thought in this context and said that Rabindranath wrote the article ‘Swadeshi Samaj’ in the context of the report of the British government in 1904, where the water problem of the people of India came up.
‘One hundred and twenty-five years ago, we were in a drought problem, this article proves that. Rabindranath in Birbhum in 1922 and 1926 started the system of irrigation coordination on the model of agricultural coordination due to severe drought. Rabindranath Tagore initiated 499 irrigation projects,’ he said.
There were 19 droughts in Bangladesh between 1960 and 1991. Bangladesh also experienced severe droughts in 1951, 1957, 1961, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1989 and 1997, the VC added.
