New cyclone shelter to provide superior utility

A highly utilitarian government primary school cum cyclone shelter with capacity to accommodate 1300 people during natural disasters saw inauguration yesterday, much to the happiness of the people of Patuakhali Sadar upazila. 

Dr Ferdinand von Weyhe, deputy head of mission of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Dhaka, opened the cyclone shelter at Haqtullah village in Patuakhali Sadar upazila around 10:00am yesterday.

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He was on a visit to the German cooperation projects including the 'Coastal Livelihoods Adaptation Project' (CLAP) of GIZ (a German government-owned not-profit enterprise supporting sustainable development) that are being implemented in Patuakhali, a southern district.

Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) implemented the three storied building construction project at a cost of Tk 2.27 crore jointly funded by Bangladesh government, the World Bank and the government of Germany.

The cyclone shelter includes a well-equipped special room for providing service to pregnant women including delivery during the cyclone, said Abu Saleh Md Hanif, executive engineer for Patuakhali LGED.

Two deep tube-wells as well as rainwater collecting system has been installed to supply pure drinking water in the building while a solar system will ensure power supply there during disasters, he added.  

The German envoy also exchanged views with the farmers, who are adapting their cultivation practices to meet the challenges of climate change in the coastal areas.

Local farmers including a good number of women showed vegetables that they produced in their fields after receiving training from GIZ's partner NGO INCIDENT Bangladesh.

Dr Md Rafiqul Islam Mondal, director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), David Kunze, country director of KfW Regional Office in Dhaka, Dhaka, Dr Purnima Doris Chattopadhayay-Dutt, principal advisor and team leader of CLAP, Asma Parvin, CLAP's senior programme advisor, Ratan Sarker, executive director of INCIDENT Bangladesh, were present during the visit, among others.

"After going back to Dhaka this afternoon, I will share my experiences that I gathered from farmers and locals here with the visiting German Foreign Minister Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. They were also interested to visit Patuakhali but did not come due to bad weather," Dr Ferdinand told journalists.

Bangladesh is a vulnerable country in terms of climate change, and both Germany and France are supposed to consider Bangladesh's opinions with due importance in the next climate summit (COP 21) to be held in Paris in December this year.