The main purposes of climate change adaptation and mitigation projects will not be fulfilled if there is shortage of funds, said Managing Director of Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Dr Jnan Ranjan Sil.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune recently, he said there was a big crisis of funds required to implement the projects.
“Our projects demand more fund but we have very little. It will be difficult to take the operations of the trust forward if the developed countries that are thought to be largely responsible for causing climate change do not fund us.
“It is the developed countries that cause climate change and hence they should provide funds. How long should our government continue to provide funds alone to tackle such a severe problem?” said Jnan.
The trust fund was created in the fiscal year 2009-10 by the government from its own resources to finance projects for implementation of Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009.
The action plan identified six areas to work on, namely food security, social protection and health, comprehensive disaster management, infrastructure, research and knowledge management, mitigation and low-carbon development, and capacity building and increasing institutional strength.
“The Water Development Board, one of the bodies responsible for implementing the projects, demands more fund but we can give them very little. For example, if they demand Tk20 crore for a specific project, we can only give them Tk2-5 crore. As a result, the real purpose of the project remains unfulfilled,” explained Jnan.
“Even though we allocate them the majority of the fund, they think the amount is little. Also, they have to design the projects several times,” he went on.
“Apart from the Water Development Board, the Local Government Engineering Department and Barind Multipurpose Development Authority are responsible for implementing projects. They also need more fund but we are unable to meet their demand.”
The board of trustee of Bangladesh Climate Change Trust approves the projects and sends recommendations to the cabinet, which later decides on the amount of allocation that each ministry will get.
Jnan said: “The environment and forests minister said we have 300 seats in the parliament. So the more areas we cover, the more we will be benefited. The fund should be based on areas. If we want to cover more areas, the fund appears less than the required.”
He said Bangladesh was doing good when it came to adaptation.
“We fund discovery of saline-tolerant seeds, construction of cyclone shelters and houses, sluice gates, drainage systems, deep tube wells etc. However, apart from the fund crunch, there is also a lack of monitoring of the projects by the ministries concerned,” added Jnan.
