Chief Reporter, The Daily Star
West Bengal moves to divert more water from the river
According to a new study, at least 56 rivers flowing through different parts of the country are suffering from extreme pollution during the lean period -- when natural flows of rivers are at their lowest
A Tk 3,020 crore government project to popularise cultivation on big plots of land with the help of modern agricultural tools has seen little success in the last two years.
At least 1,053 people were killed and 9.4 million more displaced internally in different climate-related disasters in 58 districts in seven years from 2014, says a recent study.
"On one hand, there was a fear of being the target of machete attacks while there were laws like the ICT Act. We were sandwiched in between. "
When Abdul Haque woke up at dawn yesterday, not even the bone-chilling cold or the fog could stop him from getting out onto the field.
"The only security of all is in a free press," Thomas Jefferson, famous American statesman and the country’s third president once said.
When Covid-19 began to spread at an exponential rate across countries in January 2020, ministers and government officials in Bangladesh assured people that "adequate measures" were taken to prevent coronavirus from entering the country.
Bangladesh made gains in food production and ensured the availability of rice in recent years. But surging inflation, erratic weather, and the Russia-Ukraine war affected the availability of cereals and reduced low-income people’s access to food this year.
Only two decades ago, people bathed in the Hyderabad canal in Tongi, Gazipur.
Paddy farmers in the northern districts have struggled to turn a profit for the past five years, as production costs have risen significantly but rice prices have not increased proportionally.
When Bangladesh and India were about to ink a deal on sharing the Teesta water in 2010, people living by the river in Rangpur region dreamt of better days.
The Joint Rivers Commission has not been much effective in resolving the issues of water sharing of transboundary rivers due to a lack of commitment from India and also for Bangladesh’s technical incapacity to be persuasive.
Azmat Ali is a daily wage earner in the northern district of Lalmonirhat. Just a week ago, he bought coarse rice for Tk 44-45 a kg. But yesterday he found the price of the staple rose to Tk 52.
Twenty-two years have come and gone since her husband was shot to death, but Selina Akhter Lucky has all but given up hope for justice for the brutal murder.
Indigenous leaders and researchers have questioned the accuracy of ethnic population data shown in the latest census report and said the actual figure would be much higher.
Floods, low rainfall and then fertiliser price hike -- the woes of farmers just won’t stop. And now, they will have to bear the brunt of a sudden 42.5 percent rise in diesel cost, which is likely to make them spend an additional Tk 4,000 in irrigation for per hectare Boro production.
After a spell of extreme heat and scanty rain in the last two consecutive months, farmers across the country were expecting favourable weather for a good harvest of rain-fed Aman paddy, which accounts for 39 percent of total grain production.
The government has raised the price of urea fertiliser for the first time in 11 years, burdening the farmers with an increased production cost.
It has been around a month since flood waters began receding across Sylhet division.
For around a month now, all four districts in the Sylhet division have been enduring floods with the water receding slowly from many areas and thousands left to suffer.
Although attacks on freethinkers and bloggers, and their murders by suspected Islamic militants have decreased significantly due to multiple anti-militant crackdowns, none of the families of those killed has gotten complete justice yet.
Sufferings of the people in Sylhet division is not going to end soon as rivers will continue to swell in the next three days before starting to recede. So, the flood situation in the region will prevail for at least seven more days, meteorologists said.
Sufferings of people living in Sylhet division is not going to end soon as the water level will continue to rise for next three days and the flood situation will prevail at least for seven days, according to weathermen.
Unplanned industrialisation in Sitakunda without proper safety measures has made local people live in constant fear especially after the BM container depot disaster.
Amid the Russia-Ukraine war and global food price hike, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed emphasis on boosting food production to ensure food security in the country.
A parliamentary body yesterday expressed resentment over the industries ministry’s “deliberate delay” in shutting down the tanners inside the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate,which are severely polluting the Dhaleshwari river.
The prices of rice rose by Tk 8-10 per kg over the last two weeks even though it is the harvesting season and there is ample supply of paddy.
With a call to generate and allocate necessary global funding for LDCs (Least Developed Countries)faced with natural disasters, the seventh Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) 2022 ended yesterday in Bali, Indonesia.
Praising Dhaka’s initiative to reduce disaster risks for people with disabilities, speakers yesterday said reducing risks for all is easy to talk about but difficult to implement, but Bangladesh is showing the world how to do so.
Over the decade, Bangladesh has earned a name as a role model for disaster management despite being one of the most disaster-prone and climate-vulnerable countries.
While the government is banking on a good harvest of Boro paddy to bolster its grain stock, experts fear a sole focus on local production may not help ensure the country’s food security in the foreseeable future.
Nearly 100 acres along the two banks of the Buriganga river remain filled up even after installation of boundary pillars.
In May last year, 40-year-old Sunita Das, from Gatirgheri village of Khulna’s Koyra, lost her home to cyclone Yaas. More than 50 villages in Koyra were submerged, and around 45 metres of the flood control dam of Shakbaria river in Gatirgheri were washed away at the time.
Sitting in her narrow yard, Karuna Mandal was sorting watermelon seeds. Nearly a hundred plastic and earthen pots, wrapped in polyethene and full of different kinds of seeds, lay in front of her.
A Chinese company has proposed building a metro rail line in Chattogram and reclaiming land from the sea to build a 60-square km “smart city” in exchange for a share of the latter.
Despite the forest department lacking the skilled manpower needed to run two existing safari parks, plans are underway for yet another safari park project in Lathitila forest in Moulvibazar’s Juri upazila, at the cost of destroying natural forests.
Eminent wildlife conservationist Dr Reza Khan said Bangladesh needs to open an independent department with a mandate to manage all the wildlife of the country, including those in safari parks and zoos.
The High Court had directed the government 12 years ago to restore the areas of the Turag and three other rivers around the capital to their original state, but the government still lags far behind in the implementation of the directive.
“Many are leaving this area and going someplace else to live. Their homes are submerged and they have no means of livelihood here. It is hard even to get drinking water sometimes.”
After around two decades and countless deadlines, a tannery estate with a fully functioning CETP that would ensure the environment is not ravaged by toxic waste is still a far cry from what was planned.
She wanted to be a teacher one day and was studying hard to reach that goal. But that dream, she feels, has just slipped away.
Though the district administration and National River Conservation Commission have identified the company as the top river grabber in Munshiganj, the shipping ministry has been helping boost its business by awarding it shipbuilding contracts.
Rice prices have started to drop after the government allowed private importers to bring in the staple from other countries.
The air was heavy with the stench of death. The smell of burnt plastic, packaging papers, and other factory materials was still lingering.
The prime minister has approved a proposal to scrap 10 coal-fired power plants that were okayed earlier.
In a surprising move, the government has reduced the internal procurement target of food grains for the coming year, even though it had reached its lowest just two months ago in the current year.
West Bengal moves to divert more water from the river
According to a new study, at least 56 rivers flowing through different parts of the country are suffering from extreme pollution during the lean period -- when natural flows of rivers are at their lowest
A Tk 3,020 crore government project to popularise cultivation on big plots of land with the help of modern agricultural tools has seen little success in the last two years.
At least 1,053 people were killed and 9.4 million more displaced internally in different climate-related disasters in 58 districts in seven years from 2014, says a recent study.
"On one hand, there was a fear of being the target of machete attacks while there were laws like the ICT Act. We were sandwiched in between. "
When Abdul Haque woke up at dawn yesterday, not even the bone-chilling cold or the fog could stop him from getting out onto the field.
"The only security of all is in a free press," Thomas Jefferson, famous American statesman and the country’s third president once said.
When Covid-19 began to spread at an exponential rate across countries in January 2020, ministers and government officials in Bangladesh assured people that "adequate measures" were taken to prevent coronavirus from entering the country.
Bangladesh made gains in food production and ensured the availability of rice in recent years. But surging inflation, erratic weather, and the Russia-Ukraine war affected the availability of cereals and reduced low-income people’s access to food this year.
Only two decades ago, people bathed in the Hyderabad canal in Tongi, Gazipur.