Climate change impacts in Bangladesh
With the Himalayas to the north and the Bay of Bengal to the south, Bangladesh sits on one of the world’s largest and most densely populated deltas, where the Jamuna, Padma and Meghna rivers converge.
Bangladesh
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Erosion damages Bhola town protection dam, 16 villages inundated
Some 16 villages were inundated as river erosion damaged the old town protection dam on four points. While visiting Kachia and Dhania on Wednesday, the UNB correspondent found that hundreds of the marooned people had taken shelter on the cross-dam. Some affected people took shelter upon bamboo-made platforms inside their houses. Local sources said the villages went under water as erosion by the Meghna river damaged the dam in Ilisha Murad Shafiullah and Kachia Guramira hat areas.
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The importance of biodiversity
Biological diversity or biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms: the different plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems they form. This living wealth is the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. The process of evolution means that the pool of living diversity is dynamic: it increases when new genetic variation is produced, a new species is created or a novel ecosystem formed; it decreases when the genetic variation within a species decreases, a species becomes extinct or an ecosystem complex is lost.
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Flood situation in 5 dists may improve
The flood situation in Munshiganj, Manikganj, Faridpur, Madaripur and Shariatpur districts and Dohar and Nawabganj upazilas in Dhaka is likely to improve gradually, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) reported yesterday. The major rivers Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Ganges-Padma are also expected to maintain their falling trends, the FFWC added.
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Farmers eye new areas for crops
CRITICAL food shortages and growing demand for bio-fuels and hydro-electricity, due to high fossil fuel prices, rank among the greatest threats today to the preservation of precious wetlands worldwide as farmers and developers look for new areas for agriculture, energy crop plantations and hydro dams.
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Agriculture in Bangladesh world's '8th wonder'
Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei, who is attending the current Saarc Summit as an observer, called on Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at his hotel suite in Sri Lankan capital on Saturday evening. The vice minister told the foreign adviser that China considered Bangladesh as a strategic friend in Saarc and sought Bangladesh's help in order to be able to play a greater role in Saarc, said a press release received here from Colombo.
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Vegetables dearer due to scant supply
Vegetable prices have increased significantly in the city kitchen markets in the last one month due to a fall in supply from the districts, wholesalers and traders said. The wholesale price of most summer vegetables has increased by Tk 8 to 10 per kg. Traders attributed the scant supply to rain and increased transport cost following the latest fuel price hike.
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Wildlife disappears with forest destruction
It came as a shocking reality to us at the end of our five-day trip to the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) that this vast area hardly supports any wildlife any more. The systematic destruction of the forests had been so severe that many of the animals that used to reside here and nowhere else have disappeared. Dr Reza Khan who led us to this awakening trip to the hills searched every nook and corner of the forests for sightings of such great animals and birds like the great hornbill, pied hornbill, dollar bird, mathura, great horned owl, fairy blue bird or holook gibbon.
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Wrecked roads, terminals in coastal Patuakhali
About 10 lakh inhabitants of six upazilas in Patuakhali district are suffering as half of the 150 km roads connecting the areas is in a deplorable condition. Large potholes on those roads cause nuisance for passengers as buses, loaded trucks and others vehicles often get stuck there while the situation worsens in the monsoon season with rainwater gathering in the holes. Patients become the worst sufferers on the dilapidated roads.
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Climate change to cause surge of 'envirogees'
ENVIRONMENTAL disasters from climate change and destruction of ecosystems will create a surge of refugees -- 'envirogees' -- across the planet . Maybe the buzzword will catch on faster and shed some much-needed light on what will become a serious problem, probably by the end of this or the next decade.
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Stuttering FP programme (Editorial)
WE are concerned at the slow progress in containing the baby boom for which the Millennium Development Goal (MDG-5) is likely to be difficult to attain by 2015. MDG was set at reducing total fertility rate (TFR) to 2.2 percent by 2010. According to Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey 2007, the TFR in the period 1993-94 was 3.4 percent, which came down to 2.7 in 2007 but did not come down any further. Poor management of the programme is widely considered the main reason for the stagnancy in achieving the target.