Bangladesh-Dutch cooperation programme for implementation Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100
A four-year cooperation programme has been started by Bangladesh and the Netherlands for sharing knowledge and building capacity in Bangladesh on integrated water resource management, underlying the implementation of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100.
The institutes to participate in the programme are Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and Deltares.
On 18 June an official signing ceremony took place in Dhaka to mark the start of the cooperation. Officials that were present at the ceremony included professor Shamsul Alam, Senior Secretary of the General Economic Division of the Planning Commission, and Kabir bin Anwar, Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources. The Dutch government was represented by Ambassador Harry Verweij.
A leading guideline
For a long time, Bangladesh has been battling risks from natural hazards and simultaneously building the necessary physical and governance conditions for sustainable development of the country. The recently developed Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 is its leading guideline and framework.
The focus of the programme is on applied research related to work of the Planning Commission, the Water Development Board, the Department of Environment, the Department of Agricultural Extension, and the International Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Development.
Managing Director Maarten Smits of Deltares expressed the hope that both countries can learn from each other on the modelling of complex and highly dynamic river delta’s. “But most of all, we can learn from the search for workable solutions in a different political and policy environment than in the Netherlands”, Smit said.
