Bangladesh, WB sign 113 mln USD to modernize weather, hydrological information systems

The Bangladeshi government has signed a 113 million U.S. dollars financing agreement with the World Bank (WB)to modernize the country's meteorological and hydrological information systems.

Kazi Shofiqul Azam, secretary-in-charge of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division, and Qimiao Fan, WB country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, signed the financing agreement on behalf of their respective sides on Wednesday in Dhaka.

The Bangladesh Weather and Climate Services Regional Project (BWCSRP) will help strengthen the weather, water, disaster risk and climate information services in Bangladesh.

The project will also pilot a community-level early warning system for flash floods, thunderstorms and droughts in four districts, namely Netrakona, Sunamganj, Rajshahi and Naogaon.

The pilots will benefit more than 1 million people.

According to a WB statement, the project will set up an Agro-meteorological Information System portal, agromet information kiosks in 487 sub-districts and agromet display boards at 4,051 Unions.

This will enable more than 30,000 farmer households to gain access to weather and water related information, and enable them to make better planning and decisions to deal with climate uncertainties.

"With Bangladesh often exposed to extreme weather events, the lack of reliable forecasting and information on weather can cost lives and hurt the productivity of key sectors, such as agriculture, which contributes to about 16 percent of GDP, and employs 45 percent of the population," said Qimiao Fan.

"This project will strengthen disaster preparedness, as well as help farmers better adjust to weather variability at the farm level, and thus improve productivity."

Bangladesh is among the most disaster-prone and climate vulnerable countries in the world, frequently hit by floods, drought, and tropical cyclones.

The project will help at least five international agencies engaged in regional and global modelling.

"Globally, Bangladesh is well recognized for disaster preparedness," said Kazi Shofiqul Azam. "Realizing that weather pattern is not restricted to one single country, with this project, we are looking forward to broader collaboration with our neighboring countries, and modernizing the weather and climate monitoring framework to further improve early warning systems at community level." Enditem