Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The German government will contribute 10.5 million Euros to Bangladesh for mitigating the adverse effects of climate change.
Bangladesh is one of the countries highly vulnerable by the adverse effects of climate change.
This is especially true for the southern part of Bangladesh – such as Khulna – where increased sea water level or rainfall will have severe consequences, according to German Embassy in Dhaka.
To support these cities and its inhabitants to become more resilient, the German government lauched “Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas” programme within the bilateral development cooperation with the Bangladesh government.
German government will contribute 10.5 million Euros to the project.
A respective investment within the programme will be financed by German Financial Cooperation towards the “City Region Development Project Khulna (CRDP Khulna)”.
On 10 May 2014 Wolfgang Hruschka, the acting Head of South Asia Division of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Md Moniruzzaman Moni, the Mayor of Khulna City Cooperation opened the first project under the “Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas” programme by formally launching the construction activities for the rehabilitation of the Labonchora Riverfront Road.
The rehabilitation of the Labonchora Riverfront road will help Khulna City to become more resilient against the effects of flooding.
The road will be elevated by 2ft to protect the nearby settlements from the anticipated impacts of sea level raising and frequent floods.
The design of this road has been considered the latest concepts including different elements of environment friendliness e.g. there will be 3000 saline tolerant saplings planted along the road to act as natural wind breaker as well as to absorb CO2.
Other components within the German support to CRDP Khulna will focus on climate adaptive and pro-poor road and transportation infrastructure improvement.
Hruschka highlighted that these kind of investment might be exemplary for future support of German Development Cooperation within the new priority area ‘Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas (CCAUA)’.
BBN/SS/AS-21May14-8:00pm (BST)