Rights bodies on Sunday demanded for prioritising disaster and climate-resilient infrastructures for the coastal and disaster prone population, reports UNB.
Disaster and climate-tolerant infrastructures should get the first priority otherwise coastal and disaster prone population will leave their own inhabitant and create extra burden in the big cities like Dhaka and Chattogram, they said at a human chain programme in front of the National Press Club on Sunday.
Mustafa Kamal Akand of COAST Trust moderated the human chain, while Shawkat Ali Tutul from the same organization read out the position paper and the demands.
Among others Abdul Kader Hazari of ARPAN, Subal Sarker of Bangladesh Bhumihin Samity, Zayed Iqbal Khan of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Tajul Islam of Disaster Forum and Laila Kabir of BDPC also spoke on the occasion.
In his position paper, Shawkat Ali Tutul said, in last 27 years after the devastating cyclone of 1991 there was a little initiative from the government to construct disaster and climate resilient infrastructures in Bangladesh. But government emphasised mega projects like metro rail, power generation, bridges, flyovers, four-lane roads, multi-storeyed building, and expressways.
“This is true that a country like Bangladesh needs such growth oriented developments but disaster and climate-tolerant infrastructures should get the first priority otherwise coastal and disaster prone population will leave their own inhabitants and create extra burden in the big cities like Chattogram and Dhaka,” he said.
Abdul Kader Hajari said, every year, the tidal and floodwater inundates hundreds of acres of land in the island, coastal land with saline water. Coastal people are facing the challenges with their own capabilities.
