How Vulnerable are Bangladesh’s Indigenous People to Climate Change?

This paper compares the vulnerabilities to climate change and climate variability of the indigenous people with the Bengali population of Bangladesh. It distinguishes between (a) individual vulnerabilities that are related to an individual’s capability to adapt to climate change and; (b) spatial vulnerabilities, that is, vulnerabilities that are related to the location of a person (like the exposure to climate change-induced disasters). While an individual’s capability to adapt to climate change is determined by many factors, some relatively simple approximation is to look at poverty, landlessness, and illiteracy. Spatial vulnerabilities are reviewed by looking at drought hazard maps, flood hazard maps, landslide hazard maps, and cyclone hazard maps. Hence, the paper compares levels of poverty, landlessness, illiteracy, and the more direct though also more subjective exposures to increased droughts, floods, landslides, and cyclones across the two population groups. The paper concludes with some broad suggestions on adaptation strategies of indigenous people as well as suggestions for policy interventions to reduce climate change-induced vulnerabilities for indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).Bangladesh, climate change, vulnerability

Analyzing Bangladesh’s Debt Sustainability Using SimSIP Debt

The ability to pay for a government-led investment strategy to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) is determined by the resources available to the government through economic growth, taxation, loans, and grants. Unsustainable public debts increase poverty directly through negative impacts on economic growth as well as indirectly through cuts in spending. Hence, the issue of fiscal debt sustainability is critical for achieving the MDGs. In this paper, we use the debt projection module of SimSIP Debt to project the evolution of Bangladesh’s public debt over a 15-year horizon (from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2021) under three different macroeconomic scenarios and two different financing scenarios of an ambitious government-led investment strategy.Bangladesh, debt sustainability, aid

Substituting Wood with Nonwood Fibers in Papermaking: A Win-Win Solution for Bangladesh

Bangladesh is facing an acute shortage of fibrous raw materials for the production of pulp and paper. On the other hand, the demand for paper and paper products is increasing day by day. This study reviews the availability and suitability of nonwood raw materials for pulp production in Bangladesh. It shows that Bangladesh has a huge amount of unused jute fiber, which is highly suitable for papermaking in Bangladesh. Other agricultural wastes like rice straw, dhaincha, golpata fronds, cotton stalks, corn stalks, and kash are also available and may be used for some pulp production. Given the different properties of these different nonwood fibers, jute pulp can be used as a reinforcing agent with other nonwood pulps for the production of high quality paper in Bangladesh.Bangladesh, natural fibers, jute, paper making, pulp

A Study on profitability of goat production in some selected areas of Bangladesh

This study was conducted to determine the profitability of goat production under scavenging system of rearing in some selected areas of Bangladesh. For this purpose, 250 goat-raising farm households were investigated. Results showed that the number of goat per farm varied from 2.39 to 13.75 with an average of 5.06. In cost component, the imputed value of labour took the highest (60%) share. The variable costs accounted for about 33% of the total cost. The average annual gross income and total rearing cost for all herd-size categories were Tk 2201.79 and Tk 1387.13,.respectively. The calculated benefit-cost ratios (BCR) were 0.38, 1.82, 2.68 and 1.02 for herd-size groups 1-3, 4-6, 7-10 and 11 and above, respectively. It indicated that goat raising was economically profitable for herdsize groups 4-6, 7-10 and 11 and above

Integration and adaptation of e-technology to deliver technical education in public and private universities of Bangladesh

Delivery of tertiary education is rapidly changing across the developed countries due to wider adoption of e-technology. However, most of the developing nations are not keeping up to date with the new education delivery systems such as blended learning and flipped classroom approaches. This chapter presents an overview of the technical education delivery systems in Bangladesh and presents the opportunities and challenges by two case studies: Bangladesh Open University and Daffodil International University. It has been found that Bangladesh is making some progress in delivering online technical education; however, it needs significant capacity building to develop an effective and viable online technical education system

Experimental investigation of an integrated rainwater harvesting unit for drinking water production at the household level

According to the United Nations' report, billions of people, particularly those living in regional areas (places that lay behind major cities), are still lacking access to clean drinking water. Some of them drink rainwater without any prior treatment even though water experts are campaigning against this practice for potential health risks. As most of the previous studies have focused on the use of harvested rainwater for non-potable usage, the present study reports the feasibility of producing drinking water from an integrated rainwater harvesting unit. It is found that the developed unit can produce clean drinking water for households in rural communities. The economic payback time for the proposed unit is eight years at a water production cost of AU$ 0.07/L. Important quality parameters of the produced drinking water, such as pH, electrical conductivity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, total organic carbon, turbidity, faecal coliforms & escherichia coli, heavy metals, and total trihalomethanes, are examined using a testing facility accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities from Australia. It is found that the water quality complies with the requirements specified in the Australian drinking water guidelines. The developed integrated rainwater harvesting unit could produce drinking water at a capacity of 348 ± 20 L in a day. Since it is important to store the produced drinking water for potential dry periods, suitable methods for disinfection and mineral fortification of the produced water are presented. Finally, a detailed description of the step-by-step installation of the proposed system is presented. This study can potentially contribute to Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation of United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals