Speakers at an inception meeting yesterday said adverse impact of climate change has been posing a serious threat to the overall public health especially relating to water and sanitation in the south-western coastal.
To face the natural catastrophe, substantial and sustainable promotion of water, sanitation and hygiene related modern technologies have become an urgent need as the vulnerable water and sanitation situation is closely associated with the climate change, they added.
The observations came at a meeting titled “Transforming rural livelihood through WASH in climate vulnerable area in Southwest Bangladesh” held at a city hotel.
A Khulna based non-government organisation ‘Rupantar’ arranged the meeting in collaboration with WaterAid, Bangladesh and Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC).
Divisional Commissioner of Khulna Md Abdus Samad addressed the meeting as chief guest. Executive director of Bangladesh Bank, Khulna branch Md Nazimuddin, Superintending Engineer of Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Khulna circle SM Wahidul Islam, Director of Fund Raising and Organisational Learning of WaterAid Dr Imrul Kayes Moniruzzaman were present as special guests.
Executive Director of Rupantar, Rafiqul Islam Khokon presided over the function.
Head of Programme of WaterAid Hossain Ishrat Adib, Programme Manager of WaterAid Arif Abdullah Khan, vice-chairman of Dacope upazila parishad Gaurapada Bachar, spoke on the occasion.
Divisional Commissioner Abdus Samad
said that the whole water and sanitation is facing serious threat in the coastal region
due to multifarious adverse reasons
including arsenic intrusion, lack of underground recharging, rising of salinity, river erosion and accretion leading to water
scarcity and quality problems.
Increased learning on climate adaptation techniques contributing to improved national knowledge management which will be disseminated to promote greater access to water and sanitation and disaster response in areas beyond Khulna, he added.