Jury at 3rd National Climate Hearing: Involve local people in dam maintenance

The jury panel of the 3rd National Climate Hearing has stressed the need to involve local government and people to maintain and manage embankments. The panelists, consisting of environmental experts, local government representatives and others spoke about climate induced disasters and sufferings of affected people at the hearing held at the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh auditorium in Dhaka on Friday. They also lambasted the inaction of the Water Development Board during disasters like flash flood in Haor in the last year and cyclone Aila in 2009 in which hundreds of thousands people were left destitute as embankments collapsed resulting in severe crisis of food, shelter and employment in the affected regions. “When an embankment is damaged, no official from the Water Development Board visits the spot. Local people led by the local government are the first to work to protect the embankment. But when fund is allocated for the embankment, the officials are there to embezzle the money,” Bhabotosh Mondal, the Burigoalini Union Parishad chairman of Shyamnagar under Satkhira district, said. To safeguard the affected people and their interests, the jury board made eight recommendations including taking effective steps in line with the constitution and Disaster Management Act, taking initiative for sustainable livelihood of people, ensuring fair share of the benefits of socio-economic progress for all people of the country, strengthening financial and institutional mechanisms to take preliminary steps to combat the menace of natural disaster, allocating money for maintenance of embankments along with their construction and accomplishing tasks in time and forming project implementation committee to repair the dams. Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP, president of inter-parliamentarian union, Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr Jahangir Alam Khan, vice chancellor of the University of Global Village and Prof Mahbuba Nasreen, director of Dhaka University Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, were present as jury panelists. Saber Hossain said: “The government has identified 16 groups of people who are left behind but the vulnerable people living on embankment or riverside are yet to be included in the list.” “The involvement of local people and local government is essential for planning and maintenance of embankment,” he said, adding that such hearings should be organized in the parliament. BRAC University Prof Emeritus Dr Ainun Nishat, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) Executive Director Dr A Atiq Rahman, local government expert Dr Tofail Ahmed and Green Climate Fund (GCF) Independent Evaluator Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed spoke at the hearing as expert panelists with the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods President Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman in chair. Professor Dr Ainun Nishat said: “The height of embankment in the risk-prone areas should be increased.” He further recommended forming project implementation committee in time and handing it over directly to the union parishad. Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods President Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman chaired the session, organised by CSRL in association with the British Council and UK Aid.