'Comprehensive steps needed to reduce adverse impacts of global climate change'
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Speakers at a workshop in Rangpur have underscored the need for comprehensive steps involving the grass-roots level people to reduce the adverse impacts of the global climate change going on at an alarming rates, reports BSS.
The country has been experiencing an abnormal climate change that has caused a grave concern to human health, habitation, agriculture, irrigation, navigation, ecology, bio-diversity, environment and underground water levels, they said.
They said the major rivers and their tributaries have been drying up abnormally much ahead of the usual dry seasons in recent decades in the country's north- western regions affecting all parameters for normal human habitations.
They said this at the workshop titled 'Global Climate Change and Adaptation' organised by Peoples' Oriented Programme Implementation (POPI), an NGO, at Gangachara Upazila parishad auditorium Wednesday.
The workshop was organised under the Oxfam-GB assisted River Basin Project to create awareness among the public representatives, officials, NGO experts and common people at the grass root levels to overcome the adverse impacts of climate change.
Chaired and moderated by UNO of Gangachara Upazila Abu Nasar Mohammad Abdullah, the workshop was attended by Gangachara Upazila chairman Majibar Rahman Pramanik as the chief guest.
Upazila vice-chairmen Khairul Alam Babu and vice-chairman Sree Moti Khyanto Rani, OC of Gangachara Thana Abdul Hye Shah, UP Chairmen Abdul Kader, Khalilur Rahman, Shamsul Alam, addressed the workshop as the special guests.
Project Coordinator of POPI Rostam Ali presented the main keynote paper and Veterinary Surgeon Dr Mosharraf Hossain, Election Officer Lutful Kabir, Youth Development Officer Abdur Rashid and ASA executive Abdur Razzaque were the resource persons.
The speakers said the adverse impacts of the climate change might be hundreds of times worse than what calamities like super cyclones, Sidr, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes etc might cause and the agricultural activities might be stopped due to such impacts.
This happens not only in northern Bangladesh, but also throughout the country and the globe as a whole with various intensities of possible devastations in different continents because of the ongoing global climate change, they said.
Only some negligible quantities of water were now flowing through narrower channels of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Jamuna and Padma and the other tributaries have dried up and underground water level severely lowered mainly due to manifold reasons, they said.
They said the rivers and tributaries have been increasingly drying up during the dry seasons seriously affecting irrigation, navigation, ecology, climate, environment and bio-diversity and causing grievous concern to civilisation in Bangladesh.
Besides, the underground water levels have been marking abnormal falls in recent decades and the same might go deeper in future for the same reasons halting the major agricultural activities in the country, they said.
They said such an adverse situation had already brought abnormal changes in the overall climatic patterns and silting up of the riverbeds, causing flash floods and erosion which were being accelerated further at abnormal rates in the river basins.
Over 100 indigenous species of sweet water fishes, birds, insects and animals have become extinct during the past three decades due to complete drying up of the water bodies, indiscriminate use of pesticides and reduction of forest areas, they said.
The country has been experiencing an abnormal climate change that has caused a grave concern to human health, habitation, agriculture, irrigation, navigation, ecology, bio-diversity, environment and underground water levels, they said.
They said the major rivers and their tributaries have been drying up abnormally much ahead of the usual dry seasons in recent decades in the country's north- western regions affecting all parameters for normal human habitations.
They said this at the workshop titled 'Global Climate Change and Adaptation' organised by Peoples' Oriented Programme Implementation (POPI), an NGO, at Gangachara Upazila parishad auditorium Wednesday.
The workshop was organised under the Oxfam-GB assisted River Basin Project to create awareness among the public representatives, officials, NGO experts and common people at the grass root levels to overcome the adverse impacts of climate change.
Chaired and moderated by UNO of Gangachara Upazila Abu Nasar Mohammad Abdullah, the workshop was attended by Gangachara Upazila chairman Majibar Rahman Pramanik as the chief guest.
Upazila vice-chairmen Khairul Alam Babu and vice-chairman Sree Moti Khyanto Rani, OC of Gangachara Thana Abdul Hye Shah, UP Chairmen Abdul Kader, Khalilur Rahman, Shamsul Alam, addressed the workshop as the special guests.
Project Coordinator of POPI Rostam Ali presented the main keynote paper and Veterinary Surgeon Dr Mosharraf Hossain, Election Officer Lutful Kabir, Youth Development Officer Abdur Rashid and ASA executive Abdur Razzaque were the resource persons.
The speakers said the adverse impacts of the climate change might be hundreds of times worse than what calamities like super cyclones, Sidr, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes etc might cause and the agricultural activities might be stopped due to such impacts.
This happens not only in northern Bangladesh, but also throughout the country and the globe as a whole with various intensities of possible devastations in different continents because of the ongoing global climate change, they said.
Only some negligible quantities of water were now flowing through narrower channels of the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Jamuna and Padma and the other tributaries have dried up and underground water level severely lowered mainly due to manifold reasons, they said.
They said the rivers and tributaries have been increasingly drying up during the dry seasons seriously affecting irrigation, navigation, ecology, climate, environment and bio-diversity and causing grievous concern to civilisation in Bangladesh.
Besides, the underground water levels have been marking abnormal falls in recent decades and the same might go deeper in future for the same reasons halting the major agricultural activities in the country, they said.
They said such an adverse situation had already brought abnormal changes in the overall climatic patterns and silting up of the riverbeds, causing flash floods and erosion which were being accelerated further at abnormal rates in the river basins.
Over 100 indigenous species of sweet water fishes, birds, insects and animals have become extinct during the past three decades due to complete drying up of the water bodies, indiscriminate use of pesticides and reduction of forest areas, they said.