Home ›› 14 Nov 2022 ›› News
Bangladesh and four other countries, among 170, have been awarded the Local Adaptation Champions Awards at the COP27 in Egypt.
“Our winners show that community-centric and locally led solutions to the climate crisis exist, but they require support and recognition to be scaled up and to achieve the most impact,” said Professor Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive officer of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), explaining what the award signifies.
The award was given to the Rangamati Hill District Council initiative, where it collaborated with five villages in Juraichari upazila where the residents were combatting worsening droughts, landslides, and flash floods, read a press release on Sunday.
With support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Danida, the community worked to set up solar power-based safe water supply facilities and the provision of safe drinking water during crises.
Former UN secretary general and GCA Co-Chair Ban Ki-moon said, “The initiative is a combination of local and traditional techniques. It has been done for climate adaptation in marginalised areas.
“The initiative is not only sustainable, others can also emulate it and efficiently and appropriately negate the adverse impacts of climate change,” he added.
Rangamati Hill District Council Public Relations Officer Arunendu Tripura said, “Now communities have clean drinking water, and they can water their dragon fruit, mango and lychee orchards and cultivate their land for food and income.”
The council has also established a climate resilience committee and supported local communities in conducting climate vulnerability assessments, which have fed into the creation of local resilience plans.
