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/
Thursday, October 13, 2011
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
Friday, September 2, 2011
Bangladesh and the Netherlands to share flood research
Syful Islam
28 July 2011, DHAKA
Flood-prone Bangladesh and the Netherlands are planning to exchange research findings and share experience on managing floods, which are projected to worsen because of climate change.
Floods wreak havoc in Bangladesh every year. Last week's floods killed at least four people and stranded an estimated 20,000, according to the Associated Press.
A five-year research programme worth €700,000 (US$1 million) will aim to strengthen the capacity of institutions and communities to deal with moderate and extreme floods. The programme was announced last month (27 June) and will be hosted by the Wageningen University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
It will allow the scientists to share experiences and come up with a framework that will link disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and flood management. Funds will go towards four PhD research projects that will analyse flood policies and strategies in the two countries, and one project aimed at putting research findings into practice though local workshops.
So far, both countries have had mixed experiences with building embankments on coastal deltas to reclaim low-lying land.
Bangladesh's coast is a flat plain into which sediment-laden rivers drain. Engineers built embankments to keep seawater out of the deltas and to protect against storm surges, Shah Alam Khan, professor at the Institute of Water and Flood Management and a co-leader of the new programme, told SciDev.Net.
But the embankments stopped rain water draining out, causing heavy waterlogging. Local communities eventually started breaking open the embankments to let the accumulated water out. This community-driven process was later adopted as government policy.
"The consequences of the polder [land protected by an embankment] system were not considered when the technology was adopted," Khan said. "Tidal flooding is a natural process in Bangladesh which was barred through [setting up] polders, leaving the overall ecosystem of the area in a dire state."
Large parts of the Netherlands are below the sea level and are also protected by embankments. But there, too, the embankments caused drainage problems as the land got silted up.
To solve the problem, the Netherlands adopted policies on river management by cutting embankments to allow tidal flooding for up to five years. This helped drain out excess water.
Khan said that engineers' efforts on tidal management have not yielded uniform results in all areas, and exchanging knowledge with the Netherlands could help them improve river management.
The research project dubbed 'Communities and institutions for flood resilience: enhancing knowledge and capacity to manage flood risk in the Bangladeshi and Dutch Deltas'', is funded by WOTRO, a Dutch funding organisation for research on global issues.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/bangladesh-and-the-netherlands-to-share-flood-research-1.html
Climate-friendly kilns could reduce Bangladesh's emissions
Syful Islam
8 July 2011, DHAKA
Bangladesh, which emits relatively fewer polluting gases but is projected to be highly vulnerable to global warming, has embarked on a drive to introduce environment-friendly brick-making technology to curb gaseous emissions.
The UN Development Fund (UNDP) last month (22 June) announced financial and technical support for large-scale adoption of its improved brick-making technology to help the country cut emissions and improve efficiency. The UNDP will invest in 16 demonstration kilns by the end of 2014.
Bangladesh has some 8,000 traditional kilns making 8.66 billion bricks worth US$ 450 million annually. The sector grew by over eight per cent during the last decade, but also contributed three million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually due to "outmoded, inefficient and poorly constructed kilns and the use of substandard fuels such as high sulphur coal, tyres and wood energy in the kilns to fire clay into bricks," a UNDP release said.
It is projected to grow by five per cent each year, burning more than a million tonnes of coal annually and emitting 8.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2014.
The new technology is based on the German ‘Hoffman kiln’ developed in the mid-19th century to bake clay. In 1999, China improvised the German technology into the more environment-friendly 'hybrid Hoffman kiln' (HHK), in which coal and clay are injected into a chamber and mixed to form raw, wet bricks, which are later dried.
The hybrid approach burns 95 per cent of the fuel, is more efficient and emits fewer polluting gases to produce high quality, lower cost bricks.
The UNDP improvised the HHK further by enlarging the drying chamber to suit Bangladesh's coal quality and clay moisture.
UNDP project manager Khondker Neaz Rahman told SciDev.Net that pilot tests initiated in January 2010, in Dhamrai town near Dhaka, showed the new approach producing 40,000 bricks daily, compared to 25,000-30,000 bricks using Chinese technology.
Private brick makers and development experts have welcomed the new technology. Pallab Kumar Moholnobish, project manager of ECO Brick Ltd., Dhamrai, said he can now produce bricks round the year, using less coal — 14 tonnes to make 100,000 bricks, compared to 24 tonnes in the older kilns.
Kiln operators can also earn carbon credits — a provision under the United Nations Framework on Convention for Climate Change that allows countries or groups that reduce their emissions to earn ‘credits’ for carbon dioxide reduced, and trade them in for cash.
Atiq Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dhaka, observed that the HHK would help reduce emissions as much of the dust, heat and gases remain within the chambers and are not released into the air.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/climate-friendly-kilns-could-reduce-bangladesh-s-emissions.html
8 July 2011, DHAKA
Bangladesh, which emits relatively fewer polluting gases but is projected to be highly vulnerable to global warming, has embarked on a drive to introduce environment-friendly brick-making technology to curb gaseous emissions.
The UN Development Fund (UNDP) last month (22 June) announced financial and technical support for large-scale adoption of its improved brick-making technology to help the country cut emissions and improve efficiency. The UNDP will invest in 16 demonstration kilns by the end of 2014.
Bangladesh has some 8,000 traditional kilns making 8.66 billion bricks worth US$ 450 million annually. The sector grew by over eight per cent during the last decade, but also contributed three million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually due to "outmoded, inefficient and poorly constructed kilns and the use of substandard fuels such as high sulphur coal, tyres and wood energy in the kilns to fire clay into bricks," a UNDP release said.
It is projected to grow by five per cent each year, burning more than a million tonnes of coal annually and emitting 8.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2014.
The new technology is based on the German ‘Hoffman kiln’ developed in the mid-19th century to bake clay. In 1999, China improvised the German technology into the more environment-friendly 'hybrid Hoffman kiln' (HHK), in which coal and clay are injected into a chamber and mixed to form raw, wet bricks, which are later dried.
The hybrid approach burns 95 per cent of the fuel, is more efficient and emits fewer polluting gases to produce high quality, lower cost bricks.
The UNDP improvised the HHK further by enlarging the drying chamber to suit Bangladesh's coal quality and clay moisture.
UNDP project manager Khondker Neaz Rahman told SciDev.Net that pilot tests initiated in January 2010, in Dhamrai town near Dhaka, showed the new approach producing 40,000 bricks daily, compared to 25,000-30,000 bricks using Chinese technology.
Private brick makers and development experts have welcomed the new technology. Pallab Kumar Moholnobish, project manager of ECO Brick Ltd., Dhamrai, said he can now produce bricks round the year, using less coal — 14 tonnes to make 100,000 bricks, compared to 24 tonnes in the older kilns.
Kiln operators can also earn carbon credits — a provision under the United Nations Framework on Convention for Climate Change that allows countries or groups that reduce their emissions to earn ‘credits’ for carbon dioxide reduced, and trade them in for cash.
Atiq Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dhaka, observed that the HHK would help reduce emissions as much of the dust, heat and gases remain within the chambers and are not released into the air.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/climate-friendly-kilns-could-reduce-bangladesh-s-emissions.html
Bangladesh aims for big growth in solar energy by 2015
31 Aug 2011
By Syful Islam
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) - Rural areas of Bangladesh are to see an increase in solar electricity generation as part of an ambitious plan to boost the provision of power from renewable sources.
The government has set a target of generating 500 megawatts (MW) of green energy – almost ten times the current amount – by 2015, in an attempt to narrow the gap between current supplies of grid electricity and the needs of the country’s 160 million people.
Only 49 percent of Bangladesh’s population has access to electricity from the national grid. Fossil fuels account for almost all the current capacity of 5,500 MW, with renewable sources – mostly solar power – contributing just 55 MW.
The government says there are environmental and developmental imperatives behind its search for alternative energy sources.
“Burning fossil fuel emits greenhouse gases into the air, contributing to the warming of the globe. (And) fossil fuels are depleting very quickly which is a threat to future power generation,” said Tapos Kumar Roy, additional secretary of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.
SOLAR HOME SYSTEMS
Solar home systems (SHS) are the main weapon in the government’s renewable energy armoury, because they can operate independently of the national grid. More than one million such solar systems have already been installed in rural areas where there is no other source of electricity.
Mosharraf Hosein Khokon, a resident of Brammonchak village in Bangladesh’s southeastern Chandpur district, spent 20,000 taka (about $270) to buy a solar home system. He sees little prospect of his village being connected to the national grid in the near future, so solar energy is a great help.
“The SHS system is helping us to light our four rooms. Now young members of our family can study with light from SHS, and we can watch television too,” said Khokon.
Roy said the government has identified about 30 remote sub-districts where grid expansion is not possible in the next 10 to 15 years.
“So we have no alternative to renewable energy to meet the government’s social commitment of electricity for all by 2020,” he said.
Since November 2010, the government has mandated the installation of roof-top solar panels on all new high-rise buildings, and it currently has other solar power projects under development with a total capacity of 35 MW.
Under the plan, 340 MW of new capacity will be generated from systems installed on residential, commercial and industrial buildings, as well irrigation pumps, mini-grid systems and solar parks.
Solar power systems installed on the rooftops of local government buildings, railway stations, and rural health and educational institutions will provide the balance.
WILLPOWER AND SUBSIDIES
Experts predict that the Bangladeshi government will need considerable political willpower and financial subsidies to increase its stake in green energy.
Rezwan Khan, chairman of the technical standards committee of the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), a state-run organization promoting renewable energy, noted that producing electricity from renewable sources is much more expensive than from fossil fuels.
He said that the ability to trade carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol may make it possible for the government to manage the high costs of renewable energy generation.
“But at the initial stage the government will have to provide a huge subsidy,” Khan said. He added that the government’s plan would only be viable if it promotes green energy without considering the economic costs.
At the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Tapas Kumar Roy conceded that the cost of electricity from renewable sources is quite high, but said that solar power is still popular in rural areas for lighting, especially when compared to the cost of kerosene for lamps.
INVESTMENT NEEDED
The government believes investments totalling $2.24 billion will be required to reach its solar power target. It is seeking about $1.6 billion dollars in financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other development partners. The plan calls for the remainder to be funded by the government and the private sector.
Roy said that the ADB will hold an international workshop in Dhaka with other donor agencies in late September or early October to try to secure funds for the renewable energy programme.
The government is looking to generate green power from other sources also. An Indian company has proposed a pilot wind power project with a capacity of 15 MW, and private sector financing is in the pipeline for further wind projects with the potential to generate up to 200 MW.
The government is also studying the possibility of constructing geothermal power plants in the country’s northern Panchagarh district.
Abser Kamal, chief executive officer of Grameen Shakti, a pioneering organization in the renewable energy field in Bangladesh, said the government’s goal of generating 500 MW from renewable sources was possible but agreed that it would require huge a financial commitment.
Grameen Shakti has installed some 650,000 solar home systems across the country over the past 16 years.
Ruhul Quddus, head of the Rural Services Foundation, a Bangladeshi charity, said that the government was promoting renewable energy by providing soft loans. Twenty-nine organizations have partnered with IDCOL to install over one million solar home systems across the country. The total is expected to reach 1.5 million by 2015.
“We are going forward gradually. Though the initial investment is quite high, there is a huge prospect for solar energy in Bangladesh,” Quddus added.
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/bangladesh-aims-for-big-growth-in-solar-energy-by-2015
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