Mr. Mikael Hemniti Winther, Ambassador of Denmark in Bangladesh gave a courtesy visit to LGED on Sunday. Denmark is a trusted development partner of Bangladesh and it provides development assistance in Water and Sanitation, Navigation and Rural Development sectors since independence. The Danish International Development Agency partnered with LGED during the early nineteen eighties to improve rural transportation and trading networks of the country.
The main focus of the DANIDA assistance to LGED up to 2012 was poverty reduction through market access development in coastal the districts. So far LGED has implemented 7 rural development projects with Danish assistance.
Global warming has placed Bangladesh into a difficult situation. Due to sea level rise several natural disaster occured in last one decade like SIDR, Aila, Mohsin & Rohanu causing lot of damages in coastal Bangladesh.
DANIDA has come forward to help Bangladesh to address the climate change vulnerabilities and in 2013 it has assisted LGED to implement the Climate Change Adaptation Pilot Project (CCAPP) and in 2014 the Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCAP).
Currently it is assisting LGED to implement the Climate Resilient Rural Infrastructure Project (CRRIP) at a cost of BDT 418 crores wherein Danish contribution is BDT 102 crores. CRRIP is being implemented in 24 upazilas of 6 coastal districts- Patuakhali, Barguna, Jhalakathi, Barisal, Gopalgonj and Faridpur.
The project will improve access to disaster shelters, markets, social service institutions; excavate ponds to store rain water for use in emergencies; construct bridges and culverts to remove drainage congestion; excavate canal for quick discharge of flood waters; construct rural markets for marketing of local agriculture goods and train local government bodies to address climate change vulnerabilities.
