UNB, Dhaka :Some 100,000 hectares of land could emerge from the Bay of Bengal as about 7 billion tonnes of silt fall into it each year from China and India, says Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju.”Another Bangladesh is emerging from the Bay…100,000 hectares of land will emerge from the Bay which could be used in agriculture,” he told a workshop at Cirdap auditorium in the city.About 7 billion tonnes of silt fall in the Bay each year from China and India, the minister said without attributing to any study or report.The United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in association with the Bangladesh government and USAID orgainsed the inception workshop on ‘Strengthening the Environment, Forestry and Climate Change Capacities of the Environment and Forests Ministry and its Agencies’. Chaired by Environment and Forests Secretary M Shafiqur Rahman Patwari, the workshop was addressed, among others, by member of Planning Commission (Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Institution Division) Ujjal Bikash Dutta, USAID mission director Janina Jaruzelski, FAO representative to Bangladesh Mike Robson, FAO chief technical adviser Dr Prabhu Budhathoki and FAO national team leader M Shahiduzzaman.About global warming, Anwar Hossain Manju said the developed countries should provide compensation to the poor countries as they are responsible for climate change and destruction of the nature.
