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
-
Child infected with bird flu virus cured
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday said a child was infected with the deadly H5N1, the strain of bird flu that infects people, in January this year and was cured before diagnosis. The DGHS, as part of its routine surveillance, sent a swab with samples from naso-pharyngeal of the 16-month-old boy to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta which confirmed the H5N1 infection Wednesday.
-
Tk 520cr Aussie support for poverty reduction
Australia will donate Tk 520 crore over the next four years to lift the extreme poor out of poverty and improve health of women and children, says a press release. Visiting Deputy Director General of AusAID Richard Moore yesterday signed an agreement with representatives from Brac and UNICEF to this end. From the fund Tk 236 crore is provided to Brac to lift over four million people from extreme poverty in four years. The programme will provide grants to enable women set up small enterprises such as owning livestock, poultry or growing vegetable.
-
Protect agri biodiversity to curb rising food prices'
Pointing that there are now just 12 crops and 14 animal species that provide most of the world's food, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has asked countries to protect genetic diversity of crops at a time of soaring food prices.
-
Increase in early variety of paddy farming to eliminate monga
THE government has planned to eliminate monga (near famine situation) through cultivating early variety of paddy in five northern districts by 2010. It has undertaken a plan to cultivate BRRI dhan-33 variety of paddy, developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. in 40,000 hectares of land in the districts this year which, officials concerned said, will create massive job opportunities for the farm labourers during the lean period in the region.
-
Frozen fish meets demand for uncontaminated fish
Staff of Peninsula Sea Fish Limited are busy packing frozen fish. The company has started to supply frozen sea fish to the domestic market to meet the rapidly growing demand for uncontaminated fish. One of the country's leading fish exporters has started to supply frozen sea fish to the domestic market to meet the rapidly growing demand for uncontaminated fish. Peninsula Sea Fish Limited (PSFL), a concern of the Peninsula Group, claims to be the first Bangladeshi company selling fish frozen at sea in the local market in any scale.
-
Environment polluters still unpunished
Although the Environment Cell of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) in 2003 detected 36 industrial plants in Tejgaon Industrial Area of the capital as the main polluters of the Balu river and linked canals, no action has yet been taken against them. The list comprises 30 washing and dyeing factories, 4 soap factories, and 2 ink producing factories.
-
New committee to fix fare of CNG-run buses
The government yesterday formed a high-powered committee to set the fare of CNG-run passenger buses running in Dhaka and Chittagong as the bus operators refused to accept the fare fixed by a previously formed committee. After a series of meetings with different stakeholders, a sub- committee of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) had earlier proposed the fare for one-kilometre journey at Tk 0.98. The transport leaders, however, demanded fixing Tk 1.71 per kilometre, almost double the recommended fare.
-
Walk to preserve heritage sites
Daily Star 22/05/08 On the eve of celebrating 400 years of Dhaka, the city is losing its past glory to the current trend towards shiny new apartment buildings. With the aim to preserve the city's heritage sites, Urban Study Group (USG) arranged a heritage walk yesterday afternoon at Farashganj in the old part of the city. "One of the aims of our walk is to create awareness among people so that they come forward to save the heritage of the city," said Taimur Islam, a conservation architect of USG.
-
Toxic textile wastes pollute Louhajang River in Tangail
Untreated toxic waste released from dying and printing units of a textile mill and a yarn dying mill in Tangail Sadar upazila is polluting Louhajang River. The pollution that goes on unabated for several years, now threatens fish, crops and greenery in the area, locals said. The local administration cannot take action against the authorities of the mills for pollution as the mills managed permission from the Directorate of Environment (DoE).
-
Call to attach top priority to agri, food security in budget
The government should attach top priority to the country's agriculture and food security and public service sectors in the forthcoming national budget of fiscal 2008-09, speakers said in a discussion in Rajshahi on Tuesday. They also said, the budget should be pro-people and welfare-oriented so that it could bring economic emancipation of the poverty-stricken people. And enhanced subsidy to the agriculture sector could be the means of increasing its yield, they pointed out.