Natural

by Mayank Aggarwal on 17 September 2019 • Restoration of land impacted by desertification and degradation can have long-term benefits for the development of society and thus a proactive approach is required to restore degraded land, held the recently concluded 14th Conference of Parties (CoP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). • Over 190 countries adopted the ... Read More »

Dhaka, Sep 15 (UNB) –Subrata Kumar Das, sub-registrar of Shahjadpur sub-registry office in Sirajganj, has been suspended on charge of misconduct and corruption. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 13 – A fire broke out at Minister Refrigerator factory, a sister concern of My One Group at Dheerashrom area in Gazipur city at around 7 am on Friday. The fire originated from a warehouse at 5th floor of 6 storied building of Minister Hi-tech Park limited. 18 fire fighting units from Joydevpur, Tongi and Uttara rushed to ... Read More »

by Meena Menon on 10 September 2019 • As the water level rises to near full capacity in Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar dam, villages in Madhya Pradesh are facing the impacts as their homes are flooded, further intensified by heavy rains. • The Narmada Bachao Andolan recently ended a 9-day hunger strike protesting the submergence of the villages without proper rehabilitation. Read More »

By James Reinl UN, Sep 7 2019 (IPS) – Forest fires, droughts and other forms of land degradation cost the global economy as much as 15 trillion dollars every year and are deepening the climate change crisis, a top United Nations environment official said Friday. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 9 – The fire at the Election Bhaban has damaged a large number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which were meant to be used in the upcoming Rangpur-3 by-election on October 5. Read More »

A five-member committee has been formed to investigate the fire incident at Nirbachan Bhaban, the headquarters of the Election Commission on Sunday. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 8 – Nirbachan Bhaban, the headquarters of the Election Commission of Bangladesh, caught fire in the city’s Agargaon area on Sunday around midnight. Read More »

Water and sanitation service providers must harness all available talent to achieve their goals. Removing barriers to female employment in the sector has numerous benefits not only for women, but for utilities as well. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 6 (UNB) – Australian Foreign Minister Senator Marise Payne has announced the establishment of a new Perth-based scientific hub that will allow experts from across the Indian Ocean rim to protect the health of ocean carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes and sea grasses. Senator Payne made the announcement at the 3rd Indian Ocean Rim Association Ministerial ... Read More »

By Ranjit Devraj New Delhi, Sep 4 2019 (IPS) – Expectations are high, perhaps too high, as the 14th Conference of the Parties (CoP 14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), now into the third day of its two-week session, is being held outside the smog-filled Indian capital of New Delhi. Read More »

Santa Barbara, Sep 4 (AP/UNB) — High school students, a science teacher and his daughter, an adventurous marine biologist and a family of five celebrating a birthday are among those presumed dead after a fire engulfed a scuba diving boat off Southern California’s coast, trapping dozens of sleeping people below deck. Authorities on Tuesday ended the search for survivors of ... Read More »

By Jewel Fraser Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, Sep 3 2019 (IPS) – Micro, small and medium enterprises as well as niche markets and experiences such as bee tourism may well hold the key for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States as countries of that sub-region, known as the OECS, ramp up efforts to build economies that are resilient to ... Read More »

September 2, 2019 SANDRP Different kinds of Dam Floods is affecting India this monsoon. Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) Dam, thanks to decision of the Govt of India and its Ministry of Water Resources, Narmada Control Authority including its Chairperson UP Singh (Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources), Gujarat Govt is flooding hundreds of villages in Madhya Pradesh, displacing Thousands of ... Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 2 (UNB) – The government has taken a series of measures to tackle air pollution in the capital and protect the environment, said Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin. In an interview with UNB, he blamed various development projects in general and brick kilns in particular for the unhealthy air quality of Dhaka. “Brick kilns ... Read More »

Rio De Janeiro, Sept 01 (AP/UNB) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is partially backtracking on a decree that banned most fires for land-clearing for 60 days, now saying the ban will only apply to the Amazon region. The government on Friday published a decree saying fires for agriculture outside the Amazon region would be allowed with authorization from state environmental ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 30 – Bangladesh and India need to opt for sustainable management of rivers to keep those alive from the points of origin to their outfall into the sea through basin-wide management which is now the universally accepted formula of sharing rivers. Read More »

JENNIFER J. SARA The global water crisis is a matter of too much, too little, and too polluted. Flooding, drought, dirty waterways—all have made the news these past 12 months. Read More »

Rio De Janeiro, Aug 26 (AP/UNB) — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday they are preparing to help Brazil battle fires burning across the Amazon region and repair the damage as tens of thousands of soldiers got ready to join the fight against blazes that have caused global alarm. Read More »

Rio De Janeiro, Aug 26 (AP/UNB) — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday they are preparing to help Brazil battle fires burning across the Amazon region and repair the d amage as tens of thousands of soldiers got ready to join the fight against blazes that have caused global alarm. Read More »

Rio De Janeiro, Aug 22 (AP/UNB) — As fires raged in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government on Thursday denounced international critics who say President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb massive deforestation. The growing threat to what some call “the lungs of the planet” has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure ... Read More »

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint Karachi, Aug 21 2019 (IPS) – Gulab Shah, 45, is having sleepless nights. He and his family are worried about their imminent migration from their village in Jhaloo to a major city in Pakistan, thanks to the continued ingress of sea water inland. Read More »

Delhi, 21 August (Indrajit Bose) — Several contentious issues arose prior to the adoption of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land. The SPM was adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, on 7 August, after a hectic week of negotiations on a line-by-line basis, between authors of the ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 20 – Terming the Bangladesh-India partnership as ‘role model’ for South Asia and for the world, visiting Indian external affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar yesterday said both the counties are looking forward to making progress to find mutually acceptable formulas to share water from 54 shared rivers. Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 18 (UNB) -The Department of Environment (DoE) here on Sunday ordered the closure of Asian Paper Mills for polluting the Halda River, the country’s largest fish spawning ground. DoE director (Chattogram) Azadur Rahman Mollick said a team from the divisional office of the department visited the mill on August 14 and issued the order to shut it saying ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 17 (UNB) – There is nothing new in slum fire in Dhaka city. When it happens, it leaves thousands of people in deep despair. Over 20,000 slum dwellers turned paupers within hours in Friday night’s fast-moving fire in the city’s Mirpur area. “We’ve lost all that we had — fans, utensils, clothes and money whatever. We’ve been left ... Read More »

Dhaka – Gonoforum President Dr Kamal Hossain on Saturday urged the government and social organisations to come forward in aid of the victims of Friday’s fire at a slum in the city’s Mirpur-7 area. “Thousands of people are living under the open sky without food, shelter and clothes in a dengue-hit city following the fire. I call upon the government ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 17 (UNB) – BNP on Saturday demanded a fair and neutral investigation into Friday’s fire at a slum in the city’s Mirpur-7 area as such incidents are on the rise. Talking to reporters after visiting the fire-ravaged slum, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also urged the government to rehabilitate the victims and provide them with compensation. ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 17 – The massive fire that broke out at a slum in Mirpur-7 of the city on Friday was doused early Saturday after six hours of efforts by firefighters. Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 15 (UNB) – A fire that broke out at a polythene factory in Lalbagh on Wednesday night was put out on early Thursday. Ershad Hossain, duty officer at Fire Service and Civil Defence control room, said firefighters extinguished the blaze around 4am. A number of tin-shed rooms were gutted in the fire that broke out on Water Works ... Read More »