Dev countries should compensate Bangladesh, says Motia
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury said Friday the developed countries would have to compensate Bangladesh for the adverse effects of climate change, as they were liable for it, reports UNB.
"They (developed countries) will have to compensate us. If the whole world is a global village and we are peoples of the same planet, they'll have to come forward in this regard," she said at a seminar on 'Climate Change, Sea level Rise and Facing the Challenge: The Netherlands and other Experience'.
State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman, former director general (DG) of Water Resources Planning Organisation (WARPO) MA Quassem, WDB Chief Engineer (Hydrology) AHM Kowshar and Mominul Haq Sarkar also addressed the seminar, organised by Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB) at its seminar room.
IEB President SM Nazrul Islam presided over the seminar while Dano Roelvink, professor of Coastal Engineering and Port Development, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands presented the keynote paper.
Addressing the seminar as the chief guest, Motia Chowdhury said the experience of the Netherlands in facing the challenges of sea level rise might be of use to Bangladesh, but that should be "in our own way."
She urged the engineers to come forward in surface water management and laid emphasis on building embankments using the soil of the river.
"We've to make the river banks and coastal belts conducive for livelihood and agriculture to face the challenges of climate change. We've to draw the attention of the world and at the same time we've to go ahead with our own works," she said.
Motia informed the ordinances that the country's agricultural scientists were working to invent submergence-tolerance variety of paddy, which could survive or rejuvenate even after remaining under water for 15 days.
"We're also working with drought-tolerant variety," she said adding that a new African variety of paddy from Uganda had a very bright prospect in Bangladesh, as it took only 90 days to ripe and was drought tolerant.
State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman said some 147 upazilas of 19 districts would be affected due to rise of sea level and would render 28 per cent of the country's total population as refugees.
He further said that they had a plan to lift the height of the country's 11,000 km embankments by another 3-4 feet to reduce the risk of losses. This would cost around Tk 140 billion, he said.
In his keynote presentation, Prof Dano Roelvink showed, "Morphological response of river system, estuaries and coastal areas do have effects on salinity intrusion and also result in extreme surge levels and wave attacks."
"They (developed countries) will have to compensate us. If the whole world is a global village and we are peoples of the same planet, they'll have to come forward in this regard," she said at a seminar on 'Climate Change, Sea level Rise and Facing the Challenge: The Netherlands and other Experience'.
State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman, former director general (DG) of Water Resources Planning Organisation (WARPO) MA Quassem, WDB Chief Engineer (Hydrology) AHM Kowshar and Mominul Haq Sarkar also addressed the seminar, organised by Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB) at its seminar room.
IEB President SM Nazrul Islam presided over the seminar while Dano Roelvink, professor of Coastal Engineering and Port Development, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands presented the keynote paper.
Addressing the seminar as the chief guest, Motia Chowdhury said the experience of the Netherlands in facing the challenges of sea level rise might be of use to Bangladesh, but that should be "in our own way."
She urged the engineers to come forward in surface water management and laid emphasis on building embankments using the soil of the river.
"We've to make the river banks and coastal belts conducive for livelihood and agriculture to face the challenges of climate change. We've to draw the attention of the world and at the same time we've to go ahead with our own works," she said.
Motia informed the ordinances that the country's agricultural scientists were working to invent submergence-tolerance variety of paddy, which could survive or rejuvenate even after remaining under water for 15 days.
"We're also working with drought-tolerant variety," she said adding that a new African variety of paddy from Uganda had a very bright prospect in Bangladesh, as it took only 90 days to ripe and was drought tolerant.
State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman said some 147 upazilas of 19 districts would be affected due to rise of sea level and would render 28 per cent of the country's total population as refugees.
He further said that they had a plan to lift the height of the country's 11,000 km embankments by another 3-4 feet to reduce the risk of losses. This would cost around Tk 140 billion, he said.
In his keynote presentation, Prof Dano Roelvink showed, "Morphological response of river system, estuaries and coastal areas do have effects on salinity intrusion and also result in extreme surge levels and wave attacks."