Hasan requests additional WCF funding to cover disaster damages, Dr. Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh’s minister of information and broadcasting, has asked World Climate Fund (WCF) special allocations to offset the billions of dollars in water-related damages that Bangladesh has suffered as a result of climate change-related calamities.
Hasan requests additional WCF funding to cover disaster damages
The minister was speaking on Friday night at the Bangladesh pavilion in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, during a WaterAid-organized side event of the ongoing COP-27 titled “Highlighting Loss and Damage to Water and Sanitation Infrastructures due to Climate Hazards in Bangladesh.” He claimed that initially, many people were reluctant to acknowledge the significant harm that natural catastrophes had caused to water and sanitation systems.
But according to Hasan, who is also the joint general secretary of the Awami League (AL), the degree of the devastation in many climate-vulnerable nations, including Bangladesh, is significant. According to him, financing should be distributed independently by establishing various sectors to cover and reduce these losses. He described the presence of world leaders, including as US Vice President Joe Biden, to COP-27 as a sign of optimism.
He also expressed concern about the climate fund because of the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. To rescue the globe, the minister urged swift action to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Hasan, an environmentalist, emphasized several effects of climate change on Bangladesh’s water and sanitation systems.
He noted that these effects included the rise in sea level and temperature, unusually high levels of precipitation, an increase in drought, saltwater intrusion into coastal areas, eroding river banks, the frequency of cyclones and floods, and damage from flash floods in urban areas. The other speakers at the event have emphasized the cyclones’ financial harm during the previous 15 years.
They highlighted additional damages brought on by floods at various points in history, citing 2.31 billion dollars in Sidr damage in 2007, 1 billion dollars in Ayla damage in 2009, 127 million dollars in Roanu damage in 2016, 63.6 million dollars in Fani damage in 2019, 13 million dollars in Amphan damage in 2020, and seven lakh dollars in Yas damage in 2021.
Selim Ul Haque, an environmentalist, Collin McQuistan, Md Shams-ud-Doha, the director of the WaterAid Bangladesh chapter Partho Hafez Shaikh, senior advocacy officer Adnan Kader, and others spoke at the event, which was moderated by Hasin Jahan, the country director of WaterAid Bangladesh.
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