17 Jan 2012
By Syful Islam
SHYMNAGAR, Bangladesh (AlertNet) – Rizia Akhter doesn’t look forward to what the coming storm season may bring, but for the first time in years she feels secure.
Akhter, 45 and a single mother of five children, lost her home in Ardasha Gram village when cyclone Aila struck Bangladesh’s southwest coastal region on May 25, 2009. The storm killed at least 300 people and destroyed 4,000 kilometres of roads and embankments. More than 87,000 people in the region lost their houses, possessions and livelihoods.
But Akhter is now one of 43 families in her village living in a newly constructed house - one that has been built to withstand the increasingly strong storms that experts say may be linked to climate change.
“When the warning about Aila was given, we didn’t understand how devastating the storm would be. We were not even sure whether the cyclone would hit or not. So we stayed at home. Within a few minutes of the cyclone hitting, a water surge washed out our house,” Akhter said.
The home that Akhter lost was made of iron sheets. Following the cyclone, her family had to live in a hut made of bamboo, straw and plastic sheets.
ELEVATED HOUSES
But her new house is built of wood, with brick roof tiles. Most important, it stands on four concrete pillars two metres tall to protect it from rising waters.
“The height offered is enough to deal with the expected rise in sea level and growing storm surges,” said Aminul Islam, assistant director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh, which built the new houses in partnership with BRAC, a Bangladesh-based non-governmental development organisation.
The 170 square foot (15 square metre) homes are designed to withstand winds of up to 240 kph (150 mph).
Akhter and one of her daughters survived the 2009 cyclone by grabbing hold of a piece of iron roof sheeting that was floating past. She believes that if her family had been living in a sturdier elevated house, like her new one, they would not have been washed out and their lives endangered.
The Disaster Resilient Habitat (DRH) project aims to build safer settlements in Bangladesh coastal villages affected by cyclones or tidal surges, so that families can survive future cyclones.
COMMUNITY DESIGN
Community participation was an important element in designing the houses, and architects from BRAC University consulted with villagers before coming up with a design.
“The project’s innovative approach ensured that solutions came from within the community rather than being imposed from the outside,” Islam said.
One villager, Fatema, said that community members had originally asked that the walls and roofs of the houses be built with brick and iron rods to make them more resilient, because they feared the wooden walls and brick-tile roofs would be less strong.
But Ainun Nishat, vice chancellor of BRAC University and a climate change expert, said that even as built the new houses should be able to withstand 150 mph winds, and that using local materials such as wood helped keep costs low so that the structures could be replicated in the future.
The fact that much of the area devastated by Aila is still covered in saltwater also posed a challenge to other types of construction, according to Nishat.
“Had we built the walls and rooftops with (local) bricks made of salt water and mud, there was a significant chance of the structures being ruined within five or six years” because of the salt content in the bricks, he said. Bricks used for the roofs were brought from a distance away, workers said.
The project has also focused on creating local jobs, a key element because many livelihoods were wiped out by the cyclone.
“The whole process of developing the DRH concept offered employment opportunities for different sections (of society), including the families targeted,” said the UNDP’s Islam.
The $1,750 cost of each home was covered by UNDP, while the new residents helped with the construction.
Many in the area have to travel significant distances to find work in brick-making, while for those who want to stay closer to home, like Rizia Akhter, there is little employment available other than fishing or cutting mud to build embankments as a protection against storm surges.
The UNDP now plans to expand the construction of storm-resistant houses to villages affected by Aila in the Dacope sub-district of Khulna district.
“These villages are getting cyclone-resistant homes which will have solar energy, rainwater harvesting and (cyclone) early warning systems, and livelihood support,” said Islam. The additional homes are due to be ready in March, and the UNDP is seeking donors to underwrite further expansion of the programme.
AGING SHELTERS
Although Bangladesh’s 16 coastal districts have more than 2,800 storm shelters, which have dramatically decreased deaths from cyclones in recent decades, a growing number of the shelters are now unusable, according to officials from the Ministry of Disaster Management. Adequately protecting the coastal population will require building 2,500 new shelters, they said.
Some of the existing shelters also are located too far from villages to be of much use in a sudden disaster, NGO worker say. Part of the problem is that cyclone warnings are often disregarded because they have not always been accurate in the past, and the delay in seeking shelter can cost lives.
Gareth Price-Jones, Bangladesh country director for Oxfam, said storm-resistant houses will help save lives as long as they are adapted to villagers’ way of life. According to Price-Jones, mobilising the community to assess disaster risks, agree on the most vulnerable households and design practical action plans is crucial.
“The key issue that has arisen in the past is that these kinds of structures have not been genuinely owned by the community. Too many ... have sat unused after initial success in the past. (But) it looks in this case as though the community has been very much involved, which is a really positive sign,” he said.
Nevertheless, the wider problem of worsening extreme weather events, including cyclones, remains.
“Without a serious global effort to address climate change, then it’s almost inevitable that these communities will see increased risks, decreased resilience and deterioration in their living conditions over the next few years,” Price-Jones warned.
Syful Islam is a journalist with The Financial Express newspaper in Dhaka. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com. This story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/resilient-homes-to-help-coastal-bangladeshis-withstand-cyclones/
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, December 2, 2011
Air pollution causing stronger cyclones, study finds
Syful Islam
scidev.net
7 November 2011
[DHAKA] Air pollution from soot and aerosol emissions is making cyclones over the Middle East and South Asia more destructive, according to a study.
Natural differences in wind speed and direction over different heights in the atmosphere, known as 'wind shear', normally keep cyclones in check — effectively tearing the storms apart before they reach a certain size.
But emissions from sources such as biomass burning and diesel vehicles have interfered with wind patterns, reducing wind shear and enabling cyclones to grow twice as intense, according to a study published in Nature last week (3 November).
Researchers compared cyclones that occurred between 1979 and 1996 with those between 1997 and 2010. They found that the more recent ones were up to three times more intense, with higher wind speeds — and five of the strongest storms during the period occurred after 1998. Meanwhile, wind shear dropped in this latter period.
Aerosol emissions in the region have grown six-fold since the 1930s, creating a three kilometre-thick layer of pollution over the Indian Ocean, known as the South Asian atmospheric brown cloud, which absorbs sunlight, causing the ocean to cool and affecting wind circulation.
It was already known that soot pollution interferes with monsoons and even causes warming in the region.
"I would say that the effect on cyclones is very strongly linked to the well known effect of these aerosols on the monsoon circulation and rainfall; that is, their propensity to weaken the monsoon circulation and reduce rainfall," Amato Evan, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Virginia, United States, told SciDev.Net.
"We are showing that pollution from human activity — as simple as burning wood or driving a vehicle with a diesel engine — can actually change these massive atmospheric phenomena in a significant way. It underscores the importance of getting a handle on emissions in the region," said Evan in a press release.
"If you live in an area where these very strong cyclones can make landfall, this effect [the destruction due to the cyclone] is absolutely significant," Evan told SciDev.Net. "The historical tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea that were very intense made landfall in India, Pakistan, Oman, and Iran, in each case with tremendous destruction and loss of life."
Ainun Nishat, vice chancellor of BRAC University, Bangladesh, said that the number of disasters caused by cyclones outside the monsoon period in South Asia has increased significantly in recent years.
"The intensity of cyclonic wind in the Bay of Bengal has increased a lot, which we noticed in cyclones such as Sidr and Aila, both of which caused a lot of destruction."
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/tropical-cyclones-1/news/air-pollution-causing-stronger-cyclones-study-finds.html
scidev.net
7 November 2011
[DHAKA] Air pollution from soot and aerosol emissions is making cyclones over the Middle East and South Asia more destructive, according to a study.
Natural differences in wind speed and direction over different heights in the atmosphere, known as 'wind shear', normally keep cyclones in check — effectively tearing the storms apart before they reach a certain size.
But emissions from sources such as biomass burning and diesel vehicles have interfered with wind patterns, reducing wind shear and enabling cyclones to grow twice as intense, according to a study published in Nature last week (3 November).
Researchers compared cyclones that occurred between 1979 and 1996 with those between 1997 and 2010. They found that the more recent ones were up to three times more intense, with higher wind speeds — and five of the strongest storms during the period occurred after 1998. Meanwhile, wind shear dropped in this latter period.
Aerosol emissions in the region have grown six-fold since the 1930s, creating a three kilometre-thick layer of pollution over the Indian Ocean, known as the South Asian atmospheric brown cloud, which absorbs sunlight, causing the ocean to cool and affecting wind circulation.
It was already known that soot pollution interferes with monsoons and even causes warming in the region.
"I would say that the effect on cyclones is very strongly linked to the well known effect of these aerosols on the monsoon circulation and rainfall; that is, their propensity to weaken the monsoon circulation and reduce rainfall," Amato Evan, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Virginia, United States, told SciDev.Net.
"We are showing that pollution from human activity — as simple as burning wood or driving a vehicle with a diesel engine — can actually change these massive atmospheric phenomena in a significant way. It underscores the importance of getting a handle on emissions in the region," said Evan in a press release.
"If you live in an area where these very strong cyclones can make landfall, this effect [the destruction due to the cyclone] is absolutely significant," Evan told SciDev.Net. "The historical tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea that were very intense made landfall in India, Pakistan, Oman, and Iran, in each case with tremendous destruction and loss of life."
Ainun Nishat, vice chancellor of BRAC University, Bangladesh, said that the number of disasters caused by cyclones outside the monsoon period in South Asia has increased significantly in recent years.
"The intensity of cyclonic wind in the Bay of Bengal has increased a lot, which we noticed in cyclones such as Sidr and Aila, both of which caused a lot of destruction."
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/tropical-cyclones-1/news/air-pollution-causing-stronger-cyclones-study-finds.html
Bangladesh backs solar pumps to expand irrigation
By Syful Islam
29 Nov 2011
DHAKA (AlertNet) - The government of Bangladesh is planning to install close to 19,000 solar-powered irrigation pumps by 2016, in a bid to expand the country's irrigated land area and boost food production, while limiting its reliance on fossil fuels.
The initiative is being promoted as an environmentally friendly approach to improving food security for the country’s fast-growing population of 160 million.
The new pumps will run on a combined 150 megawatts (MW) of power generated by solar panels, which is projected to save the government nearly $100 million in fuel-subsidy costs over 20 years.
Today Bangladeshi farmers rely on some 266,000 electrically powered water pumps - which consume around 1,300 MW - to irrigate 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land.
An additional 1.3 million diesel-run pumps are operated during the peak growing season to irrigate 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of land, using 900,000 tonnes of fuel, according to Bangladesh’s power and energy ministry.
Once installed, the planned 18,750 solar-powered pumps – which will be managed by farmers' associations - will irrigate an additional 590,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land for cultivating rice and vegetables, without requiring any grid electricity or diesel fuel.
Eventually the government hopes to switch over some of the land now irrigated with electric and diesel-powered pumps to solar pumps as well – if it can find financing, officials say.
The investment of $800 million needed for the project represents good value, they argue. Expanding irrigation with diesel-powered pumps, which are used mainly in rural areas not connected to the electricity grid, would require the government to subsidise farmers to the tune of $900 million over 20 years - $100 million more than the solar outlay.
LONG-TERM RETURNS
Bangladeshi farmers who depend on diesel-run pumps are permitted to buy diesel fuel at government-subsidised prices if they show official identity cards. The subsidies are a drain on public coffers, particularly as the fuel is usually sold at a lower price than its import cost.
“Solar power is costly (to install), but you will find it cheaper if the calculation is done on a long-term basis. A solar panel carries 20 years of warranty, and after that it can generate power for 20 more years,” said Islam Sharif, executive director of the state-run Infrastructure Development Co Ltd (IDCOL), which is managing the project.
In addition to projected fuel savings, Bangladesh anticipates being able to generate and trade carbon credits worth around $18 million from the project through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), with the income spread over 20 years, Sharif said.
IDCOL has already installed a dozen solar-powered irrigation pumps out of a total of 100 that will be placed across the country over the next 18 months under a pilot programme.
“After the pilot project is over, we will collect data on water levels across the country, hear the customers’ (farmers’) reaction, and gather other necessary data before starting installation of large numbers of irrigation pumps,” said Sharif.
IDCOL is working to find ways to lower the installation costs so the pumps can eventually be rolled out to the country’s 600 sub-districts, he added.
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Bangladesh’s first solar-powered irrigation pump, with a capacity of 11 KW, was installed in 2009 in the northern district of Naogaon by Grameen Shakti, a micro-finance institution that is supporting the expansion of renewable energy in rural areas.
By comparison, the solar panels on the new pumps will each generate 5-7 KW of electricity. The smaller pumps, with the capacity to irrigate about 20 hectares per unit, can be managed more efficiently than larger models, according to Sharif. Each pump costs between $30,000 and $42,000.
Tapos Kumar Roy, additional secretary at the Ministry of Power, said the success of the pumps installed so far has convinced the government that introducing more could effectively provide clean energy and reduce the cost of diesel subsidies.
“The solar-run pumps will help reduce burning of fossil fuel…limiting the risk of global warming and climate change,” said Roy.
The government estimates that, once all the pumps are in place, their solar panels will save 675 MW hours of electricity per day, cut imports of diesel fuel by 47,000 tonnes per year, saving $45 million annually, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an annual 126,000 tonnes.
Roy said donor agencies, including the Asian Development Bank, as well as non-governmental organisations, micro-finance institutions, private companies and commercial banks, will play a significant role in funding the installation of the pumps, although specific commitments have yet to be finalised.
Abser Kamal, chief executive officer of Grameen Shakti, one of the project's backers, said it is a step towards making the country more self-sufficient in food, as extending irrigation to new areas will enable farmers to harvest more crops per year and boost yields.
“The solar-run pump we installed as a pilot (in 2009) covers irrigation of some 30 hectares of land and provides water at the same cost as that of diesel or electric pumps. Now the solar panels have become cheaper, so their installation cost will come down significantly and the capital (invested) will return comparatively quickly,” he added.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
This story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-backs-solar-pumps-to-expand-irrigation
29 Nov 2011
DHAKA (AlertNet) - The government of Bangladesh is planning to install close to 19,000 solar-powered irrigation pumps by 2016, in a bid to expand the country's irrigated land area and boost food production, while limiting its reliance on fossil fuels.
The initiative is being promoted as an environmentally friendly approach to improving food security for the country’s fast-growing population of 160 million.
The new pumps will run on a combined 150 megawatts (MW) of power generated by solar panels, which is projected to save the government nearly $100 million in fuel-subsidy costs over 20 years.
Today Bangladeshi farmers rely on some 266,000 electrically powered water pumps - which consume around 1,300 MW - to irrigate 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land.
An additional 1.3 million diesel-run pumps are operated during the peak growing season to irrigate 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of land, using 900,000 tonnes of fuel, according to Bangladesh’s power and energy ministry.
Once installed, the planned 18,750 solar-powered pumps – which will be managed by farmers' associations - will irrigate an additional 590,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land for cultivating rice and vegetables, without requiring any grid electricity or diesel fuel.
Eventually the government hopes to switch over some of the land now irrigated with electric and diesel-powered pumps to solar pumps as well – if it can find financing, officials say.
The investment of $800 million needed for the project represents good value, they argue. Expanding irrigation with diesel-powered pumps, which are used mainly in rural areas not connected to the electricity grid, would require the government to subsidise farmers to the tune of $900 million over 20 years - $100 million more than the solar outlay.
LONG-TERM RETURNS
Bangladeshi farmers who depend on diesel-run pumps are permitted to buy diesel fuel at government-subsidised prices if they show official identity cards. The subsidies are a drain on public coffers, particularly as the fuel is usually sold at a lower price than its import cost.
“Solar power is costly (to install), but you will find it cheaper if the calculation is done on a long-term basis. A solar panel carries 20 years of warranty, and after that it can generate power for 20 more years,” said Islam Sharif, executive director of the state-run Infrastructure Development Co Ltd (IDCOL), which is managing the project.
In addition to projected fuel savings, Bangladesh anticipates being able to generate and trade carbon credits worth around $18 million from the project through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), with the income spread over 20 years, Sharif said.
IDCOL has already installed a dozen solar-powered irrigation pumps out of a total of 100 that will be placed across the country over the next 18 months under a pilot programme.
“After the pilot project is over, we will collect data on water levels across the country, hear the customers’ (farmers’) reaction, and gather other necessary data before starting installation of large numbers of irrigation pumps,” said Sharif.
IDCOL is working to find ways to lower the installation costs so the pumps can eventually be rolled out to the country’s 600 sub-districts, he added.
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Bangladesh’s first solar-powered irrigation pump, with a capacity of 11 KW, was installed in 2009 in the northern district of Naogaon by Grameen Shakti, a micro-finance institution that is supporting the expansion of renewable energy in rural areas.
By comparison, the solar panels on the new pumps will each generate 5-7 KW of electricity. The smaller pumps, with the capacity to irrigate about 20 hectares per unit, can be managed more efficiently than larger models, according to Sharif. Each pump costs between $30,000 and $42,000.
Tapos Kumar Roy, additional secretary at the Ministry of Power, said the success of the pumps installed so far has convinced the government that introducing more could effectively provide clean energy and reduce the cost of diesel subsidies.
“The solar-run pumps will help reduce burning of fossil fuel…limiting the risk of global warming and climate change,” said Roy.
The government estimates that, once all the pumps are in place, their solar panels will save 675 MW hours of electricity per day, cut imports of diesel fuel by 47,000 tonnes per year, saving $45 million annually, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an annual 126,000 tonnes.
Roy said donor agencies, including the Asian Development Bank, as well as non-governmental organisations, micro-finance institutions, private companies and commercial banks, will play a significant role in funding the installation of the pumps, although specific commitments have yet to be finalised.
Abser Kamal, chief executive officer of Grameen Shakti, one of the project's backers, said it is a step towards making the country more self-sufficient in food, as extending irrigation to new areas will enable farmers to harvest more crops per year and boost yields.
“The solar-run pump we installed as a pilot (in 2009) covers irrigation of some 30 hectares of land and provides water at the same cost as that of diesel or electric pumps. Now the solar panels have become cheaper, so their installation cost will come down significantly and the capital (invested) will return comparatively quickly,” he added.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
This story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-backs-solar-pumps-to-expand-irrigation
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Anti-graft group to track Bangladesh climate spending
11 Oct 2011 11:27
By Syful Islam
DHAKA (AlertNet) - Corruption watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has launched an initiative to track the use of climate change funds in the South Asian nation, following media reports that the government planned to allocate some money to groups that lack the capacity to spend it well.
As an organisation that fights graft, TIB regards monitoring of climate finance expenditure as a key responsibility. “Bangladesh is on the frontline of climate vulnerable nations,” said TIB executive director Iftekhar Zaman. “That’s why it is getting huge funds from developed nations and also spending its own (funds). The money should go into the victims’ hands.”
In recent years, Bangladesh has experienced a growing number of climate-related disasters caused by cyclones, floods, river erosion, droughts and saline intrusion into water supplies and soil. These events – in line with the predicted impacts of climate change – have led to increased poverty and displacement, particularly in coastal areas.
Zaman told AlertNet that TIB - the Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International - is not alleging any irregularities in climate funding at this stage. But it will check out media reports which asserted several months ago that the government had selected incapable and inexperienced NGOs to carry out local projects such as setting up biogas plants and rainwater harvesting.
Traditional research methods will be applied to “follow the money” to ensure it is spent in a transparent and accountable way, Zaman said.
The process will involve all relevant actors, and information will be sought from fund managers. “We will go after (the money), so that any bid to mishandle the funds can be foiled,” he added.
DONORS WARY?
Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), concurred with media reports that the initial selection process for NGO projects to receive money from the $300 million Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) - which is resourced from the national budget - was distorted.
In response to concerns, the government has said it is still reviewing the NGOs and their proposed projects before making a final allocation of funds.
Rahman stressed that Bangladesh must make clear how it plans to spend money for climate change activities, whether from its own budget or donated by developed countries and international institutions.
“Despite the high vulnerability of Bangladesh to climate change impacts, the donors may not release funds unless their proper use is ensured,” the well-known development expert noted.
In June, TIB expressed solidarity with a list of 10 demands from civil society groups to strengthen accountability and transparency in climate finance, with the aim of securing justice for Bangladeshis already affected by climate change.
“Donors' funds have started to pour in. Besides, the government has allocated a huge sum from the national budget for adaptation and mitigation of climate change impacts. But we see no strategies on fund utilisation,” TIB head Zaman told journalists late last month.
TIB will receive 275,000 euros ($374,000) for its monitoring project from the German environment ministry, which is supporting stronger governance of climate finance in developing nations.
NGO PROJECTS ON HOLD
The manager of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, Didarul Ahsan, told AlertNet its board of trustees has so far approved 44 government projects and 53 submitted by NGOs at a combined cost of $75 million.
Most of the government projects have now begun, but the NGO programmes are still on hold.
“Since the media has reported mismanagement in NGO project selection, we are again scrutinising those to ensure transparency,” Ahsan said.
Donors have also pledged $125 million to the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund managed by the World Bank.
So far it has allocated $25m for the construction of cyclone shelters in coastal areas, which is now under way. Two further projects - one to help the agricultural sector adapt to climate shifts and the other in afforestation - are being prepared, according to communications officer Mehrin Ahmed Mahbub.
State minister for environment Hasan Mahmud welcomed TIB’s move to keep track of climate funds. “We are yet to allocate a single penny to NGO projects, which are set to receive between 1 and 2 percent of total BCCTF funds,” he told AlertNet. The negative media allegations are unlikely to be based on accurate investigation, he added.
Mahmud said the national climate trust fund subjects both government and NGO projects to several stages of scrutiny before disbursing any money. “No other funds in Bangladesh follow such procedures,” the minister insisted.
Gareth Price Jones, country director for Oxfam GB, said his organisation also supports the TIB initiative, as it will benefit impoverished communities struggling to cope with climate change.
“Transparency in climate fund management is very much expected from Oxfam,” he said. “It’s Bangladesh’s money. It should be investigated if there is any anomaly. Climate funding is very much essential for Bangladesh.”
Speaking at a recent national consultation on transparency in climate finance governance, Member of Parliament Saber Hosain Chowdhury, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change, stressed the need to use climate funds effectively through a coordinated and collective approach.
“In a resource-constrained country like Bangladesh, which is facing adverse impacts from climate change, maximum utilisation of both domestic and external resources should be ensured for better implementation of climate programmes,” the national news agency quoted him as saying.
When allocating climate money, priority should be given to the southwest and coastal regions, which are most vulnerable to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels and increasingly intense storms, the politician said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with The Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/anti-graft-group-to-track-bangladesh-climate-spending/
By Syful Islam
DHAKA (AlertNet) - Corruption watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has launched an initiative to track the use of climate change funds in the South Asian nation, following media reports that the government planned to allocate some money to groups that lack the capacity to spend it well.
As an organisation that fights graft, TIB regards monitoring of climate finance expenditure as a key responsibility. “Bangladesh is on the frontline of climate vulnerable nations,” said TIB executive director Iftekhar Zaman. “That’s why it is getting huge funds from developed nations and also spending its own (funds). The money should go into the victims’ hands.”
In recent years, Bangladesh has experienced a growing number of climate-related disasters caused by cyclones, floods, river erosion, droughts and saline intrusion into water supplies and soil. These events – in line with the predicted impacts of climate change – have led to increased poverty and displacement, particularly in coastal areas.
Zaman told AlertNet that TIB - the Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International - is not alleging any irregularities in climate funding at this stage. But it will check out media reports which asserted several months ago that the government had selected incapable and inexperienced NGOs to carry out local projects such as setting up biogas plants and rainwater harvesting.
Traditional research methods will be applied to “follow the money” to ensure it is spent in a transparent and accountable way, Zaman said.
The process will involve all relevant actors, and information will be sought from fund managers. “We will go after (the money), so that any bid to mishandle the funds can be foiled,” he added.
DONORS WARY?
Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), concurred with media reports that the initial selection process for NGO projects to receive money from the $300 million Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) - which is resourced from the national budget - was distorted.
In response to concerns, the government has said it is still reviewing the NGOs and their proposed projects before making a final allocation of funds.
Rahman stressed that Bangladesh must make clear how it plans to spend money for climate change activities, whether from its own budget or donated by developed countries and international institutions.
“Despite the high vulnerability of Bangladesh to climate change impacts, the donors may not release funds unless their proper use is ensured,” the well-known development expert noted.
In June, TIB expressed solidarity with a list of 10 demands from civil society groups to strengthen accountability and transparency in climate finance, with the aim of securing justice for Bangladeshis already affected by climate change.
“Donors' funds have started to pour in. Besides, the government has allocated a huge sum from the national budget for adaptation and mitigation of climate change impacts. But we see no strategies on fund utilisation,” TIB head Zaman told journalists late last month.
TIB will receive 275,000 euros ($374,000) for its monitoring project from the German environment ministry, which is supporting stronger governance of climate finance in developing nations.
NGO PROJECTS ON HOLD
The manager of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, Didarul Ahsan, told AlertNet its board of trustees has so far approved 44 government projects and 53 submitted by NGOs at a combined cost of $75 million.
Most of the government projects have now begun, but the NGO programmes are still on hold.
“Since the media has reported mismanagement in NGO project selection, we are again scrutinising those to ensure transparency,” Ahsan said.
Donors have also pledged $125 million to the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund managed by the World Bank.
So far it has allocated $25m for the construction of cyclone shelters in coastal areas, which is now under way. Two further projects - one to help the agricultural sector adapt to climate shifts and the other in afforestation - are being prepared, according to communications officer Mehrin Ahmed Mahbub.
State minister for environment Hasan Mahmud welcomed TIB’s move to keep track of climate funds. “We are yet to allocate a single penny to NGO projects, which are set to receive between 1 and 2 percent of total BCCTF funds,” he told AlertNet. The negative media allegations are unlikely to be based on accurate investigation, he added.
Mahmud said the national climate trust fund subjects both government and NGO projects to several stages of scrutiny before disbursing any money. “No other funds in Bangladesh follow such procedures,” the minister insisted.
Gareth Price Jones, country director for Oxfam GB, said his organisation also supports the TIB initiative, as it will benefit impoverished communities struggling to cope with climate change.
“Transparency in climate fund management is very much expected from Oxfam,” he said. “It’s Bangladesh’s money. It should be investigated if there is any anomaly. Climate funding is very much essential for Bangladesh.”
Speaking at a recent national consultation on transparency in climate finance governance, Member of Parliament Saber Hosain Chowdhury, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change, stressed the need to use climate funds effectively through a coordinated and collective approach.
“In a resource-constrained country like Bangladesh, which is facing adverse impacts from climate change, maximum utilisation of both domestic and external resources should be ensured for better implementation of climate programmes,” the national news agency quoted him as saying.
When allocating climate money, priority should be given to the southwest and coastal regions, which are most vulnerable to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels and increasingly intense storms, the politician said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with The Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/anti-graft-group-to-track-bangladesh-climate-spending/
Natural sediment may shield groundwater from arsenic
Syful Islam
10 October 2011
SciDev.Net
[DHAKA] Contamination of deep groundwater with arsenic from shallower sources may not be as serious as feared — if pumping deep water is limited to domestic use, a study has found.
Exposure to arsenic-contaminated groundwater has been linked to almost one in every five deaths in Bangladesh, and some 100,000 deep wells have been constructed to pump deeper, cleaner water. Recent modelling studies have suggested that these cleaner water sources are also being contaminated — from shallower water seeping down to replenish deeper wells.
But a study published in Nature Geoscience yesterday (9 October) found that natural adsorption of arsenic by sediment — sand in the aquifers — reduces contamination risk in most areas.
"Deep groundwater in Bangladesh is at risk from contamination by arsenic from shallow groundwater seeping downwards if not carefully managed," Yan Zheng, who co-authored the study while he was a senior scientist at Columbia University, United States, told SciDev.Net. "The risk is higher if deep groundwater is used for irrigation, which consumes a lot more water than [use for] domestic purposes."
Modelling studies have suggested that the contamination of deep groundwater results from shallower water seeping down to replenish pumped deep water. But these studies did not consider the influence of sediment, which can adsorb arsenic, Zheng and her team say.
They tested this adsorption in the field in Bangladesh, and used their results to estimate the vulnerability of deep groundwater to arsenic pollution from shallower water seeping down.
They found that sediment removes around 70 per cent of arsenic within a day, reducing the risk of contamination of deep groundwater in most, but not all areas; and more so when the water is pumped for domestic use only, rather than irrigation. This suggests that current contamination of deep wells is either natural or comes from individual cases of badly designed wells that allow more seepage, Zheng said.
She added that the recommendation for the policymakers "is not to use deep groundwater for irrigation", and to regularly and systematically monitor water quality in the areas identified as more vulnerable to contamination.
Zheng also said that the agricultural sector should urgently look for sources of surface water to use for irrigation instead of groundwater.
Wais Kabir, executive chair of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, agreed that irrigation leads to higher risk of arsenic contamination of groundwater and said that Bangladesh needs to "change its food habits" and produce crops that need less irrigation.
S M Ihtishamul Huq, the Department of Public Health Engineering's superintendent engineer, told SciDev.Net: "We have to be more cautious while using groundwater for irrigation where the presence of arsenic is much higher."
He suggested changing crop patterns to reduce dependency on groundwater for irrigation. For example, he said: "We cultivate paddy during the winter using the groundwater irrigation. If we instead produce wheat [in] that period we do not need to irrigate much."
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/water/news/natural-sediment-may-shield-groundwater-from-arsenic.html
10 October 2011
SciDev.Net
[DHAKA] Contamination of deep groundwater with arsenic from shallower sources may not be as serious as feared — if pumping deep water is limited to domestic use, a study has found.
Exposure to arsenic-contaminated groundwater has been linked to almost one in every five deaths in Bangladesh, and some 100,000 deep wells have been constructed to pump deeper, cleaner water. Recent modelling studies have suggested that these cleaner water sources are also being contaminated — from shallower water seeping down to replenish deeper wells.
But a study published in Nature Geoscience yesterday (9 October) found that natural adsorption of arsenic by sediment — sand in the aquifers — reduces contamination risk in most areas.
"Deep groundwater in Bangladesh is at risk from contamination by arsenic from shallow groundwater seeping downwards if not carefully managed," Yan Zheng, who co-authored the study while he was a senior scientist at Columbia University, United States, told SciDev.Net. "The risk is higher if deep groundwater is used for irrigation, which consumes a lot more water than [use for] domestic purposes."
Modelling studies have suggested that the contamination of deep groundwater results from shallower water seeping down to replenish pumped deep water. But these studies did not consider the influence of sediment, which can adsorb arsenic, Zheng and her team say.
They tested this adsorption in the field in Bangladesh, and used their results to estimate the vulnerability of deep groundwater to arsenic pollution from shallower water seeping down.
They found that sediment removes around 70 per cent of arsenic within a day, reducing the risk of contamination of deep groundwater in most, but not all areas; and more so when the water is pumped for domestic use only, rather than irrigation. This suggests that current contamination of deep wells is either natural or comes from individual cases of badly designed wells that allow more seepage, Zheng said.
She added that the recommendation for the policymakers "is not to use deep groundwater for irrigation", and to regularly and systematically monitor water quality in the areas identified as more vulnerable to contamination.
Zheng also said that the agricultural sector should urgently look for sources of surface water to use for irrigation instead of groundwater.
Wais Kabir, executive chair of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, agreed that irrigation leads to higher risk of arsenic contamination of groundwater and said that Bangladesh needs to "change its food habits" and produce crops that need less irrigation.
S M Ihtishamul Huq, the Department of Public Health Engineering's superintendent engineer, told SciDev.Net: "We have to be more cautious while using groundwater for irrigation where the presence of arsenic is much higher."
He suggested changing crop patterns to reduce dependency on groundwater for irrigation. For example, he said: "We cultivate paddy during the winter using the groundwater irrigation. If we instead produce wheat [in] that period we do not need to irrigate much."
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/water/news/natural-sediment-may-shield-groundwater-from-arsenic.html
'Extended life' rice could quadruple yields, cut costs
29 Sep 2011 15:00
Syful Islam
DHAKA (AlertNet) - A Bangladeshi scientist has developed new rice varieties with an extended life cycle that can produce up to three crops from one plant. Their yield could be four times higher than traditional varieties, helping boost food security in South Asia and beyond.
The cultivation method for the multi-crop rice also produces less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional paddy farming, in which plants produce only one harvest, and makes them more resilient to excessive rainfall.
Abed Chaudhury, a genetics expert who has worked with the Australian National Rice Research Institute for the past 20 years, describes the approach - developed in consultation with farmers - as “second life” or “extended life”, and will soon apply to the Bangladeshi authorities for seed certification.
"My target is to transform the annual plant into perennial plant. It saves costs as well as giving high yield," he told AlertNet.
Rice plants usually produce only one crop. After the paddy ripens, farmers harvest the rice, cutting the plant down to a height of around 10 cm and leaving it to rot into the ground.
But if farmers adopt Chaudhury's cutting-edge varieties and techniques, they could harvest rice three times from the same plant in one year. Early tests suggest yields could be more than quadrupled at a very low cost.
According to the scientist, a rice plant normally produces 65 sheaves, or clusters of grains, of which around 40 are mature at first harvest. The rest are wasted when the plant is cut down.
In the initial 130-day growing period, the new paddy varieties grow 85 cm to 1 m tall, as do most other rice types. But when farmers come to harvest the first crop, they leave 35-40 cm in the ground, and apply around half the amount of fertiliser again. The immature sheaves continue growing, and can be harvested in 50-55 days.
On a demonstration field in Bangladesh's northeastern Moulavibazar district, a third crop from the same plants is now being awaited, requiring 45-50 additional days to ripen.
TEST YIELDS QUADRUPLE
With the first crop, Chaudhury and his colleagues harvested 6.4 tonnes of paddy from one hectare of land. They then spread urea fertiliser on the field, and left the immature sheaves to ripen, harvesting some 3 tonnes of paddy. More fertiliser was applied to the remaining sheaves, and a further 3 tonnes of rice are expected.
Yields from traditional paddy varieties are around 3 tonnes a hectare. But the new plants are projected to produce more than 12 tonnes of paddy from the same land area, at comparatively low costs.
"The spending on the second and third (crops) is very minimal,” said Abbas Ali, a farmer in Hazipara village in Moulavibazar district. “You have to spread a very tiny volume of fertiliser only. You do not need to plough the land."
He is growing the new rice on five acres of land, and is now waiting to cut the paddy a second time. So far he’s very happy with the experiment. "I will continue to grow this variety of paddy since it is very profitable due to low cost and high yield,” he said.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Ferdous Bappi, manager of Chaudhury's project in Moulavibazar, said the new rice types are neither hybrid nor genetically modified, and are similar to traditional varieties developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. The team’s research has not revealed any other varieties with similar characteristics, he added.
Of 10 varieties the project has bred, four have proved suitable for the “extended life” method. “Now we want to spread the method, as well as the varieties, across the country,” said Bappi. “Many people from different parts of the country have already contacted us."
The farming method has environmental benefits, and could contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation, he added. Rice produces substantial amounts of methane due to its semi-aquatic nature and tilling releases it from the land.
"If you follow the 'extended life' method you do not need to plough the land, and there is no chance of greenhouse gas emissions," Bappi explained.
The farming technique also makes the plants more resilient to excessive flooding. Usually, young paddy plants are 15 cm high when transplanted into the land, meaning they rot if submerged in too much rainwater for too long.
"Since, in our method, the crop is harvested keeping 35 cm of the paddy plant in the land, during the second and third sessions, there is no chance of them being swamped or rotten," Bappi said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/extended-life-rice-could-quadruple-yields-cut-costs/
Syful Islam
DHAKA (AlertNet) - A Bangladeshi scientist has developed new rice varieties with an extended life cycle that can produce up to three crops from one plant. Their yield could be four times higher than traditional varieties, helping boost food security in South Asia and beyond.
The cultivation method for the multi-crop rice also produces less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional paddy farming, in which plants produce only one harvest, and makes them more resilient to excessive rainfall.
Abed Chaudhury, a genetics expert who has worked with the Australian National Rice Research Institute for the past 20 years, describes the approach - developed in consultation with farmers - as “second life” or “extended life”, and will soon apply to the Bangladeshi authorities for seed certification.
"My target is to transform the annual plant into perennial plant. It saves costs as well as giving high yield," he told AlertNet.
Rice plants usually produce only one crop. After the paddy ripens, farmers harvest the rice, cutting the plant down to a height of around 10 cm and leaving it to rot into the ground.
But if farmers adopt Chaudhury's cutting-edge varieties and techniques, they could harvest rice three times from the same plant in one year. Early tests suggest yields could be more than quadrupled at a very low cost.
According to the scientist, a rice plant normally produces 65 sheaves, or clusters of grains, of which around 40 are mature at first harvest. The rest are wasted when the plant is cut down.
In the initial 130-day growing period, the new paddy varieties grow 85 cm to 1 m tall, as do most other rice types. But when farmers come to harvest the first crop, they leave 35-40 cm in the ground, and apply around half the amount of fertiliser again. The immature sheaves continue growing, and can be harvested in 50-55 days.
On a demonstration field in Bangladesh's northeastern Moulavibazar district, a third crop from the same plants is now being awaited, requiring 45-50 additional days to ripen.
TEST YIELDS QUADRUPLE
With the first crop, Chaudhury and his colleagues harvested 6.4 tonnes of paddy from one hectare of land. They then spread urea fertiliser on the field, and left the immature sheaves to ripen, harvesting some 3 tonnes of paddy. More fertiliser was applied to the remaining sheaves, and a further 3 tonnes of rice are expected.
Yields from traditional paddy varieties are around 3 tonnes a hectare. But the new plants are projected to produce more than 12 tonnes of paddy from the same land area, at comparatively low costs.
"The spending on the second and third (crops) is very minimal,” said Abbas Ali, a farmer in Hazipara village in Moulavibazar district. “You have to spread a very tiny volume of fertiliser only. You do not need to plough the land."
He is growing the new rice on five acres of land, and is now waiting to cut the paddy a second time. So far he’s very happy with the experiment. "I will continue to grow this variety of paddy since it is very profitable due to low cost and high yield,” he said.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Ferdous Bappi, manager of Chaudhury's project in Moulavibazar, said the new rice types are neither hybrid nor genetically modified, and are similar to traditional varieties developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. The team’s research has not revealed any other varieties with similar characteristics, he added.
Of 10 varieties the project has bred, four have proved suitable for the “extended life” method. “Now we want to spread the method, as well as the varieties, across the country,” said Bappi. “Many people from different parts of the country have already contacted us."
The farming method has environmental benefits, and could contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation, he added. Rice produces substantial amounts of methane due to its semi-aquatic nature and tilling releases it from the land.
"If you follow the 'extended life' method you do not need to plough the land, and there is no chance of greenhouse gas emissions," Bappi explained.
The farming technique also makes the plants more resilient to excessive flooding. Usually, young paddy plants are 15 cm high when transplanted into the land, meaning they rot if submerged in too much rainwater for too long.
"Since, in our method, the crop is harvested keeping 35 cm of the paddy plant in the land, during the second and third sessions, there is no chance of them being swamped or rotten," Bappi said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/extended-life-rice-could-quadruple-yields-cut-costs/
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Plastic bottles could clean arsenic-contaminated water
Syful Islam
www.scidev.net
7 September 2011
[DHAKA] Chopped up plastic bottles covered in a common chemical may be a simple and inexpensive method for removing arsenic from drinking water.
A team of chemists at Monmouth University, United States, found that bits of plastic coated with cysteine, a common molecule found in foods, bind to arsenic.
"Laboratory experiments have shown that the method has the potential to be very efficient and very cost effective," Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the university told SciDev.Net.
"The method uses plastics which are cheap and locally available," he added. "[It] is eco-friendly because it involves recycling of plastic bottles [and] is also safe because the chemical ingredients used are not toxic."
In Bangladesh alone some 35 million people are exposed to arsenic contamination from drinking water, according to the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), and estimates say around 100 million in the developing world are affected.
Arsenic has been linked to a variety of health problems from stomach pains and blindness to various cancers — one in five deaths in Bangladesh has been linked to arsenic exposure.
Tongesayi presented his team's findings last week (31 August) at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The researchers showed that the method can reduce the arsenic content from 20 parts per billion (ppb) — two times higher than the safe standard set by the US Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water — to 0.2 ppb.
Tongesayi said they were now looking for a commercial partner to scale up the process.
But Guy Howard, the UK Department for International Development's Research and Evidence Representative in South Asia, said: "Simply looking for a commercial partner is not the key to scaling up". The technology first has to be shown to work in field conditions, which may vary a lot and where other chemical species compete with arsenic for adsorption sites, he said.
He added that the technology also needs to be shown to be acceptable to potential users, who must understand how to use it and when to replace filters, for example. Some previous technologies that worked in the lab, have failed at these two steps, Howard said.
"Finally such a technology has to pass regulatory requirements — some scientists appear to believe these do not exist in countries like Bangladesh. The reality is quite the reverse — Bangladesh has a very stringent technology verification process and technologies are only accepted for wide deployment once this is passed," he said.
Shudhir Kumar Ghosh an engineer at the DPHE said the new method has good prospect in Bangladesh since it will use low cost plastic bottle and the easily available chemical.
He added that there are already various methods in use to remove arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh, including six chemical-based technologies — half of those invented locally.
Such methods can be useful at a household level but need constant monitoring of the presence of the chemical and arsenic in water, Kumar Ghosh said.
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/land-water-pollution/news/plastic-bottles-could-clean-arsenic-contaminated-water.html
www.scidev.net
7 September 2011
[DHAKA] Chopped up plastic bottles covered in a common chemical may be a simple and inexpensive method for removing arsenic from drinking water.
A team of chemists at Monmouth University, United States, found that bits of plastic coated with cysteine, a common molecule found in foods, bind to arsenic.
"Laboratory experiments have shown that the method has the potential to be very efficient and very cost effective," Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the university told SciDev.Net.
"The method uses plastics which are cheap and locally available," he added. "[It] is eco-friendly because it involves recycling of plastic bottles [and] is also safe because the chemical ingredients used are not toxic."
In Bangladesh alone some 35 million people are exposed to arsenic contamination from drinking water, according to the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), and estimates say around 100 million in the developing world are affected.
Arsenic has been linked to a variety of health problems from stomach pains and blindness to various cancers — one in five deaths in Bangladesh has been linked to arsenic exposure.
Tongesayi presented his team's findings last week (31 August) at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The researchers showed that the method can reduce the arsenic content from 20 parts per billion (ppb) — two times higher than the safe standard set by the US Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water — to 0.2 ppb.
Tongesayi said they were now looking for a commercial partner to scale up the process.
But Guy Howard, the UK Department for International Development's Research and Evidence Representative in South Asia, said: "Simply looking for a commercial partner is not the key to scaling up". The technology first has to be shown to work in field conditions, which may vary a lot and where other chemical species compete with arsenic for adsorption sites, he said.
He added that the technology also needs to be shown to be acceptable to potential users, who must understand how to use it and when to replace filters, for example. Some previous technologies that worked in the lab, have failed at these two steps, Howard said.
"Finally such a technology has to pass regulatory requirements — some scientists appear to believe these do not exist in countries like Bangladesh. The reality is quite the reverse — Bangladesh has a very stringent technology verification process and technologies are only accepted for wide deployment once this is passed," he said.
Shudhir Kumar Ghosh an engineer at the DPHE said the new method has good prospect in Bangladesh since it will use low cost plastic bottle and the easily available chemical.
He added that there are already various methods in use to remove arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh, including six chemical-based technologies — half of those invented locally.
Such methods can be useful at a household level but need constant monitoring of the presence of the chemical and arsenic in water, Kumar Ghosh said.
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/land-water-pollution/news/plastic-bottles-could-clean-arsenic-contaminated-water.html
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