PM seeks international support for BDP 2100

While opening an international conference on the Delta Plan 2100 through a videoconference from Ganabhaban Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged the country’s development partners to help implement the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100. The premier rightly said that cooperation or participation of our friendly countries and development partners is absolutely necessary in every field of knowledge, technology and exchange of experiences, starting from financing.

Bangladesh has long been facing a number of delta related challenges in the form of frequent natural hazards, salinity intrusion, sea level rise, and so on. However, Bangladesh as a delta country has had some privileges nonetheless. In order to explore and tap the full potential of a delta country, making a strategic delta management plan was more than a necessit. 

After implementing its own delta management plan, Netherlands, 

reclaimed 6,000 square kilometres of land and the country is now 

assisting Bangladesh in executing the plan

In 2018, the government launched the Delta Plan 2100 to secure the future use of the country's water resources and mitigate the impact of climate change and natural calamities. As Bangladesh is vulnerable to these challenges as well as climate change impacts, sustainable developments require the calibre to cope with climatic variables. Such challenges indeed require the proper implementation of the government’s visionary “Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100”.

It is apprehended that BDP 2100 will enable the country to deal with climate change in a more efficient and strategic way. Most importantly, the Delta Plan will help the country reclaim a big mass of land from the Bay of Bengal. Hence, it can be hoped that the proper implementation of the project will be the key to tackle climate change challenges.

As most of the finance will come through the foreign agencies and most of the project consultants deployed to operate and implement the project are from abroad, a strict monitoring will be pertinent while implementing the project. After implementing its own delta management plan, Netherlands, reclaimed 6,000 square kilometres of land and the country is now assisting Bangladesh in executing the plan. However, following Netherlands, Bangladesh should also try to reclaim a big mass of land from the Bay of Bengal through implementing ‘BDP 2100’. 

Every year rivers from Himalayas bring tonnes of sediments while crossing Bangladesh, which earlier gave birth to some 1,000 square kilometres of land. Experts assert that through this process in the next 50 years Bangladesh can reclaim at least 1,000 square kilometres naturally. 

Experts are of the opinion that with the use of new technology, Bangladesh can speed up the accretion process as Netherlands did. To this end, building more dams using advanced technology is very much needed which would enable Bangladesh to reclaim 4,000 to 5,000 square kilometres in the near future.