The country’s coastal people are deprived of desired development as the government is not providing adequate money with the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund [BCCTF], alleged Transparency International Bangladesh [TIB] on Tuesday.
According to information available, the government under the Ministry of Environment and Forest formed the BCCTF in 2009. It allocated an amount of Tk 2,700 crore to it for 2009-2013 to fight the adverse impact of climate change. But in reality, the allocated amount of money is not adequate for the task.
“The government did not make any allocations in BCCTF last year. Besides, the amount of allocation this year is also very poor. Wheras, the government had formed the BCCTF for the betterment of the coastal people and promised to allocate adequate fund in the annual budget,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB said.
He was addressing a human chain organized by TIB with support from Activista Bangladesh at the Teacher-Student Centre [TSC] of Dhaka University. Climate change in Bangladesh is an extremely crucial issue. According to National Geographic, the country ranks first among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change in the coming decades. Pointing to the issue, Dr Iftekhar said, “I urge the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now in New York to attend the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, to uphold the impacts of climate change on the least developed countries in front of the global leaders.” Experts said, by 2020, about 500 to 750 million people would be affected by water stress caused by climate change around the world. And, the low-lying coastal regions, such as Bangladesh, are vulnerable to sea level rise and increased occurrence of intense, extreme weather conditions such as the cyclones.
In most countries like Bangladesh, yields from rainfed agriculture could be reduced to 50 per cent by 2020 with creating an extremely adverse effect on food security.
Although effects of climate change are highly variable, by 2030, South Asia could lose 10 per cent of rice and maize yields, while some countries like Pakistan could experience a 50 per cent reduction in crop yield, the experts said.
