The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Friendship on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance flood forecasting technology, strengthen community-based flood forecasting and early warning systems, and promote research, knowledge exchange and capacity building in the country's water management sector.
The signing ceremony was held at the conference room of the BWDB director general at the Water Bhaban headquarters in Dhaka.
BWDB Director General Md Enayet Ullah, additional director generals and other senior officials of the organisation attended the event.
The MoU was signed on behalf of BWDB by Dr Md Sajjad Hossain, Additional Chief Engineer (Water Science), while Kazi Amdadul Haque, Senior Director and Head of Strategic Planning and Climate Action Sector at Friendship, signed on behalf of the organisation.
According to a press release, the agreement has been signed under the HERON Project, an initiative led by Friendship with technical support from the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), RSS Hydro, and other partner institutions from Luxembourg.
The project aims to improve the technical capacity of flood forecasting through satellite-based technologies, strengthen community-level early warning systems, facilitate knowledge and technology transfer, and advance research and innovation in water resources management.
Under the project, the Chilmari area along the Brahmaputra River has been selected as the research site.
Officials said the technologies and research findings generated under the project would be integrated with BWDB's existing flood forecasting system with a view to expanding their application nationwide in the future.
The project will also focus on enhancing the technical capacity of BWDB engineers and other stakeholders through technology transfer, specialised training and increased international research collaboration.
Officials expressed hope that the MoU would open a new avenue for long-term technical cooperation between BWDB and Friendship in the areas of flood forecasting, disaster risk reduction and climate-resilient water resources management.
