Thrust on generating authentic environ data

Eminent environmentalist Dr Ainun Nishat stressed on Sunday the importance of generating authentic environmental data as per the international standard and sharing those with each other for working out effective polices, reports UNB.
 "Differences have been found in data generated by different institutions. The government should select a unique standard in generating data so that those could be generated as per the international standard," he told a report launching programme in the capital.
He said differences between the data of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Bureau of Statistic (BoS) have been found every year. "Why should not be the data of two institutions similar? The scarcity of raw data is another problem. We must resolve it," Ainun Nishat added.
The Department of Environment (DoE) under the Ministry of Environment of Forests organised the programme at Cirdap auditorium to launch the Environment and Climate Change Outlook Report 2012.
The environmental expert emphasised defining the rivers, wetlands and water-bodies to help generate authentic data. "We select rivers during the dry season. Rivers should be selected during monsoon when they are full of water."
Identifying climatic changes in the seasons of Bangladesh, he said Shefali flower is bloomed in April while Kadam in the Bangla month of Chaitra due to the changing climate. "And it is related to food security."
Addressing as the chief guest, Deputy Minister for Environment of Forests Abdullah Al Islam Jacob said the Awami League government had inserted the environment issue in the Article 18 (A) of the Constitution to protect the country's biodiversity and ecosystem.
He said the government has already announced four rivers --Buriganga, Balu, Turag and Shitalakhya -- surrounding Dhaka city, as ecologically critical areas and taken steps to revive the rivers.
Environment and Forests secretary Shafiqur Rahman Patwari and DoE director general Raisul Alam Mondal, among others, spoke at the programme.