The New Nation - Internet Edition

Rafiqul Islam Azad

Bangladesh is most vulnerable to climate change due to its high climate variability, population density, extreme weather events, poor institutional capacity and inadequate financial resources, according to experts.

Bangladesh, like some other nations, might face a bleak future due to climate change as the sea level could rise from 20cm to 80cm over next 100 years, they said.

The experts observed that the most adverse consequence of the climate change would have for the human health, particularly in increasing the rate of illness and death from familiar causes.

They observed that the rates of illness and death, related to heat and cold, increase due to exposure to thermal extremes while deaths, injuries, psychological disorders and damage to public health infrastructure causes by the changed frequency or intensity or intensity of other extreme weather events.

They recommended that Bangladesh should have clear mitigation policies for climate change, for which developed nations are held most responsible, and its impact focusing on arresting carbon, reducing carbon emission and strengthening regional and international advocacy.

The experts made the observations while addressing the two-day Bangladesh Public Health Conference 2008 organised by Unnayan Onneshan at BRAC Centre Inn in the city yesterday.

In his power-point presentation at on Climate Change:

Global & Bangladesh perspective, Dr MH Salim Ullah Sayed, an Associate Professor of Department. of Occupational & Environmental Health, NIPSOM termed Bangladesh as one of the innocent victims of Climate Change.

Developed countries are causing the global warming on the other hand Bangladesh, like other countries, is being victimised of it, he said

Salim Ullah Sayed referred that developing countries contribute of Green House Gases (GHG) only 33 per cent while developed counties contribute 67 per cent. He showed that Bangladesh emits only 0.10 per cent of CO2 from industrial process while the USA emits 32.79 and in Europe the percentage is 27.35.

H

e termed diarrhoea, skin diseases, malaria, kala-azar, mental disorder, and dengue as major climate sensitive diseases in Bangladesh.

Dr Hirendra Kumar Das, Project Manager, CDS, Department of Environment emphasised the need for protecting the Ozone Layer for survival of natural life saying that it shields plant and animal life from ultraviolet radiation, which in high doses, can be particularly damaging to natural life.

Dr Mohd. Abdul Matin, General Secretary, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) observed that about one-third city dwellers are the climate change refugees.

He emphasised the need or taking adoption measure to climate change as what he said some degree of global warming now seem to be certain.

He recommended housing design- that enhances summer time cooling, enhancing the coastal buffers, improving control of vector borne and water borne diseases, stricting health indicator monitoring, ensuring disease surveillance, conducting multidisciplinary research to develop early health warning system and improvising environmentally friendly public health interventions.

It is very high time to recognize the wide ranging potential consequences of climate change for our health and well being can greatly strengthen the international rationale for reducing green house emissions, he observed.

Abdul Matin said Bangladesh needs to have not only an adaptation but also the mitigation plan. Bangladesh government has developed a National Adaptation Program of Action for climate change but no mitigation plan is yet to be developed.

Earlier, Director General of Health Directorate Prof Dr Md Abdul Faez inaugurated the conference. Among others, the conference was also addressed, among others, by Dr Mohammad Yunus of ICDDR,B, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir , Tauhid Alam and Taslima Akter.

About 150 participants from home and abroad took part in the conference ending today.