Bangladesh, a delta country, is exposed to tropical cyclones and storm surges every year makes it very vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The World Bank article says that each year the country’s economic gains are taken away by either a devastating storm or cyclones costing up to billions of dollars in asset damages.
Erosions in Bangladesh eat away 10 thousand hectares of land and weaken its coastal defences every year. Two-thirds of the country sits at less than 5 meters above sea-level, a reason why Bangladesh is highly susceptible to natural hazards. With sea-level rise, floods can quickly destroy homes, public infrastructure, and crops. Saltwater intrusion from sea-level rise in low-lying areas threatens their food security.
Climate adaptation and mitigation projects are a priority of Bangladesh, the article says. It has already invested more than $10 billion in climate change actions from increasing government agencies’ response to emergencies to building emergency shelters and resilient homes and reducing saltwater intrusion.
Despite the government’s efforts to address climate change, climate change effects continue to devastate the region. The World Bank’s projects in the country to bolster the government climate action and help communities, especially the most impoverished areas, adapt and mitigate climate change.
These projects include helping the coastal communities to prepare and “ride out” even the strongest of storms; strengthen the governments’ disaster risk reduction and management so they could facilitate fast recovery from disasters; setup desalinization plants and solar-powered irrigation in the poorest areas; distribute clean and energy-efficient cookstoves to thousands of women; and many other projects.
Climate change will continue to affect Bangladesh; however, the World Bank has committed help for the country and will “continue to emphasize measures that simultaneously deliver climate resilience and development benefits.”
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Source Citation:
Bangladesh: Building Resilience to Climate Change. (2016, October 6). The World Bank. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/10/07/bangladesh-building-resilience-to-climate-change
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