Tackling Climate Change and Preserving the Water Body: A Bangladeshi Perspective

A child wades through water on her way to school in Kurigram district of northern Bangladesh during floods in August 2016. Credit: UNICEF/AkashBy Fairuz AhmedNEW YORK, Feb 17 2020 (IPS) For any riverine country, the state of the water body around big cities and conditions of major rivers hold a leadership position in the overall climate effects and how the water body is protected and preserved impacts the entire economy and living standards of that country. Bangladesh is renowned for the geomorphic features that include massive rivers flowing throughout the country. Within the border of Bangladesh lie the bottom reaches of the Himalayan Range water sources that flow into the Bay of Bengal totaling the number of rivers by a count of 700. The length of river bodies is about 24,140 km. There are predominantly four major river systems: the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Ganges-Padma, the Surma-Meghna, and the Chittagong Region river system. The Brahmaputra is the 22nd longest (2,850 km) and the Ganges is the 30th longest (2,510 km) river in the world. (1) The river system works as a backbone for agriculture, communication, drinking water source, energy source, fishing and as the principal arteries of commercial transportation in Bangladesh. During the annual monsoon period between June and October, the rivers flow about 140,000 cubic meters per second and during the dry period, the numbers come down to 7000 cubic meters per second. As water is vital to agriculture, more than 60 percent...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Climate Change Development & Aid Economy & Trade Energy Environment Featured Food & Agriculture Headlines Health Labour TerraViva United Nations Trade & Investment Water & Sanitation Source Type: news