41 win climate contest in Sylhet

Distinguished guests and winning school students at the Sylhet divisional round of Junior Climate Champions 2014 held at Scholarshome School and College yesterday. Photo: Star

A total of 41 school students yesterday won the Junior Climate Champions 2014 in Sylhet division and were given green cards to take part in the national round of the contest.

The premises of Scholarshome in Sylhet city, where the daylong programme took place, wore a festive look with colourful decorations and over 700 curious participants.

Divided into two categories--junior (class VI to VIII) and senior (class IX to X)--the event featured four areas of contest, which include quiz, poster designing and painting, extempore speech, and environment-related projects, all involving climate issues.

With an aim to sensitise the young minds to climate change and its impacts, HSBC and The Daily Star organised the championship.

Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Vice Chancellor of Metropolitan University Prof Md Saleh Uddin said the industrialised countries were mainly responsible for carbon emissions, but Bangladesh was paying for that.

It is already evident in the changes of Bangladesh's weather pattern, he said. The young generation has to be aware of this, he said, and lauded the initiative.

Congratulating the winners, Talukdar Noman Anwar, HSBC country head of communications, stressed the need for a large-scale awareness campaign on environmental issues at all levels. "We all must be prepared for facing the challenges," he said.

The guests distributed the green cards among the winners.

In his speech, Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam urged the students to give proper attention to save the country's rivers, trees, and hills for environmental safety. "Otherwise, our future will be in danger," he said.

Mahfuz Anam said there would be a great change in the country's food production due to climate change and the students should know all these issues using modern technology.

He thanked all for cooperation and gave assurance of arranging such events in the future.

The Daily Star editor also handed over a set of books, published by the English daily, to Principal of Scholarshome Brig Gen (retd) Zubayer Siddiqui, while the latter presented crests to the former, the chief guest, and the HSBC official.

Prof Zahir Bin Alam of the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) also attended the ceremony.