Tackling Climate Change
Unite govt, NGO efforts for best results
Says expert
The government and development organisations should work together on climate change adaptation programmes so that the country can be better equipped in taking on the impacts of global warming, said a climate expert yesterday.
The climate change specialist, M Asaduzzaman, said the many community-based adaptation programmes undertaken by different non-government organisations around the country are isolated.
“The government also took some projects but those are also isolated. There is no coordination among them. All of those seem to be isolated. They are not adding up,” he said.
Asaduzzaman was addressing a workshop, “Pilot evaluation of social and economic responses to a few identified livelihood adaptation options”, at Hotel Riggs Inn in the capital.
The workshop presented the outcomes of an action plan undertaken by Centre for Global Change (CGC) in association with Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) in three upazilas under Khulna and Satkhira districts.
Asaduzzaman, also a former research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said the many projects ongoing across the country will give people the much-needed experience to deal with climate change impacts.
But Bangladesh is not yet prepared to take on impacts of climate change and people trying to work outside the government are in panic, he said.
“The country has got a small amount of money to deal with climate change. Many will scramble for money when more of it comes in. We do not know whether this money will be properly utilised. I think steps should be taken now,” he said.
It is yet to be known whether projects under the Climate Change Trust Fund are related and relevant to climate change, he said.
“If we think that the donors' money is only to be used and not for any special purpose then we will not be able to progress far,” he said.
MJF Executive Director Shaheen Anam said it is important to learn from a pilot project on adaptation and take the experience forward. “Otherwise it (the experience) will be of no use.”
She said the climate change issue would pose as a threat for the country. “Still, people are using their resiliency to face the challenges. We should also work with the government to face the challenges.”
She said the government must think with the long term in view and introduce measures, like on rainwater harvesting, to alleviate the water crisis in the country. “Buildings are being constructed in cities but such facilities are not there on a large scale.”
CGC Executive Director Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, Associate Prof Sharmind Neelormi of Department of Economics of Jahangirnagar University, Additional Chief Engineer Dewan Naquib Ahsan of Department of Public Health Engineering, Project Director Abu Wali Raghib Hassan of Department of Agriculture Extension and Climate Change Specialist Sarwat Chowdhury of United Nations Development Programme also spoke at the programme.
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