Khulna Office:

Aug 12/2025: Speakers at a coordination meeting on Tuesday (Aug 12) said south-western part of Bangladesh is one of the disaster prone zones of the globe owing to its geographical location as well as natural reasons. Due to climate change the frequency and intensity of disasters are increasing, threaten lives and livelihood. A large number of people are become ultra poor due to disaster and climate change effect every year.

To face the natural catastrophe, substantial and sustainable promotion of safe drinking water, agriculture, sanitation and hygiene related modern technologies have become an urgent need as the vulnerable water and agriculture situation is closely associated with the climate change, they added.

The observations came at a divisional level coordination and advocacy

centric yearly meeting titled “Community led innovation for climate risk mitigation in Bangladesh” held at the conference room of Hotel Grand Placid in the city.

Rupantar, a Khulna based non-government organization arranged the meeting in collaboration with CARE, Bangladesh to strengthen the capacity of and coordination between local government institutions and local development organizations so as to prepare for and respond to disasters and climate change. Deputy Director of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Khulna

Md Nazrul Islam, Khulna District Fisheries Officer Md Badruzzaman,

Director (acting) of Department of Environment (DoE), Khulna division Md Sadiqul Islam, Executive Engineer of Public Health Engineering Department (DPHE), Khulna Md Mainul Hasan, Khulna District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Md Abdul Karim, Deputy Director of Social Welfare Department, Khulna division Khan Motahar Hossain, Deputy Director of Women Affairs Department, Khulna Suraiya Siddiqa, Chairman of Environmental Science Discipline of Khulna University Prof Dr Muzibur Rahman, teacher of Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline of Khulna

University Prof Dr Md Wasiul Islam, teacher of Department of Urban and Rural Planning of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) Prof Dr Tushar Kanti Roy, Assistant Professor Md Ashiqul Alam and Assistant Professor Md Tuhinul Hasan of Khulna Agriculture

University, and different NGO personalities, local journalists, spoke on the occasion.

Executive Director of Rupantar, Swapon Kumar Guho presided over the function. Executive Director of Sundarban Academy, Khulna Prof Anwarul Quadir conducted the event. Program Director of Rupantar, Md Faruk

Ahmed narrated the aim of project on electronic projector and said this project is implementing at Sarankhola upazila of Bagerhat district.

Regional Coordinator of CARE, Palash Mondal said that the whole land, water and livelihood is facing serious threat in the coastal region due to multifarious adverse reasons including salinity intrusion, lack of underground recharging, rising of salinity, river erosion and accretion leading to water scarcity and quality problems.

Further threats arise from global climate change, especially sea level rise along with its salinity, which has already caused death to many big trees of the largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, he added.