Global warming Can Take Away Part of Bangladesh

For ensuring permanent disaster management systems our country needs a big action plan with sufficient funds and unique steps to prevent the emission of carbon dioxide which is originating form the industrially developed countries.

Speakers observed these in the seminar called 'world climate change and Bangladesh' organized by the Bangladesh science writer and journalist Forum at the national press club.

Environment and science journalist Mir Lutful kabir Saadi presented his paper on the green house effect. He quoted from some environmental scientists that 2-Degree Celsius temperature will be increased in the world that is enough to flood out 11 per cent area of Bangladesh. Therefore, lives of 3 to 4 crores of people are on the verge of extinction. He recommended 11-point proposals to protect the earth from the environmental catastrophes.

Prof. Dr. Ainul nishat stressed for coordinated effort for the water resource management among the South Asian countries. He thinks dams can save citizens from the flood effect. So we need more strong and high erected dams in the flood prone area.

Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim mentioned that awarding IPCC and AL Gore with Nobel Prize in this year means now we are highly thinking on the global warming. Indigenous technology should be applied to protect the environment and we need to formulate concrete policy for the sake of better environment.

The Bangladesh Observer, 5 December 2007

East Asian Leaders Vow to Boost Investment in Sanitation

Ministers and policy makers from East Asia have pledged in Japan to raise investment in sanitation and hygiene, and to provide strong leadership for action, in an effort to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), the world Bank said in a statement released here on December 01, 2007.Among the MDGs are to ensure environmental sustainability, and reduce extreme poverty and hunger, which still occur in East Asia, particularly in the region's least development member countries.

The MDGs, scheduled to be achieved by 2015, were adopted by 192 member states of the United Nations at the millennium summit in 2000.

Some of the ways to achieve the goals are to reverse loss of environmental resources, reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water as well as to integrate the principles of sustainable development into the country policies and program.

The East Asian leaders ended their two-day Ministerial Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene in Beppu City of Japan, the bank said.

They considered that sanitation played an important role in achieving the MDGs, it said.

The leaders pledge to take the necessary steps to comply with the goals for sanitation in their respective countries. They vowed to beef up investment in sanitation hygiene promotion to benefit, in particular, the poor and marginalized who face the worst conditions and the most limited access to adequate facilities, it said.

The declaration is to include women, children and poor families in the planning and roll out of sanitation programs, stressing that the role of individuals, and particularly women, is crucial to realizing sanitation and hygiene gains, the statement said.

It Also commits minister and decision makers to strive ot ensure that schools, places of learning and health care facilities are equipped with sanitation facilities, said the statement.

The independent, 3 December 2007

World Toilet Day 2007

On 19th November, events and activities took place all over the world to highlight the fact that over 40% of the world's populations do not have a safe, clean or private place to go to the toilet.

UN Launches International Year of Sanitation

The UN has announced 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation. The central objective for the year is to put a global spotlight on current poor conditions of hygiene, to highlight the little progress made to-date towards the Sanitation target under the Millennium Development Goals (goal 7) and to advocate for the multiple benefits that stem from better sanitation and hygiene.

Hopefully the year will raise awareness and promote decisive action by key players like the leaders of the world's G8 group of industrialised nations. NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation is planning to highlight the significance of the International Year of Sanitation through organizing different programmes and activities at Central and Regional Level.

October 2007

November 2007