ZCZC
BSS-01
CLIMATE-MIGRANT
Govt. erecting 139 buildings for climate migrants in Cox’s Bazar
BY AKM Kamal Uddin Chowdhury
DHAKA, Oct 5, 2018 (BSS) – The government is constructing 139 multi-storied
buildings in Cox’s Bazar to rehabilitate over 4,400 poor families being
victims of climate-induced disasters, like cyclone, river erosion and
landslides under Ashrayan Project-2, officials said.
“The government is erecting the shelters for climate victims on 253.35
acres of land near the Cox’s Bazar airport,” Ashrayan-2 Project Director Abul
Kalam Shamsuddin told BSS.
In this area, he said, the government has also taken an initiative to
develop a modern tourist zone and a distinctive dry fish market with a tower
naming after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He however said Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) will also
construct a bridge over the Bakkhali River while Water Development Board will
build an embankment to protect the project area from river erosion.
Deputy Project Director SM Hamidul Haque said the construction works of
the 20 shelters for climate migrants are running fast while the construction
of other buildings will begin soon.
Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) Dr Atiq
Rahman said Bangladesh is a pioneer in taking many climate initiatives
nationally and globally, including National Adaption Programme of Action
(NAPA) and Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP).
“Bangladesh has demonstrated its leadership in sheltering families
displaced by climate related calamities,” he said.
Ashrayan Project, one of the ten priority initiatives of Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, was designed to provide the distressed people with homes and
other supports for making them self-reliant.
The Ashrayan Project was launched in 1997 to rehabilitate the cyclone
affected people in Cox’s Bazar and its adjoining districts. A total of 2,
64,442 families so far have been rehabilitated in three phases across the
country since 1997.
The Ashrayan-2 project of Taka 4,840.28 crore was designed in 2010 for
providing shelter to around 2.50 lakh homeless families by 2019.
Under this project, the government has rehabilitated a total of 1, 58,529
families till now since July, 2010.
Freedom fighters, widows and divorcee women were given priority in terms of
getting homes under the project.
BSS/SPL/KUC/GMR/1159 hrs