Environment Minister addresses UNCCD COP17 ministerial dialogue in Ulaanbaatar
Minister Urges Tech Transfer for Drought Resilience
- Calls for regional basin-level water sharing and technology transfer to counter land degradation
- Proposes integrating BAMIS agro-data with International Drought Resilience Observatory
- 20,000 km waterbody re-excavation, coastal mangrove expansion, and tree mission highlighted
Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Abdul Awal Mintoo has called for robust regional cooperation, equitable river basin water sharing, and accelerated technology transfer to strengthen drought resilience and arrest land degradation. He made the remarks on Tuesday, 25 August, while addressing the ministerial dialogue titled 'Accelerating Drought Resilience' at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The Minister highlighted that drought and ecological degradation are intrinsically linked in Bangladesh. Across the northwestern region, nearly 5.46 million hectares of land remain drought-prone, where operating 16,000 deep tube-wells has led to critical groundwater depletion, prompting curbs on new irrigation projects. To mitigate these bottlenecks, the Bangladesh Agro-Meteorological Information Systems (BAMIS) is actively deployed to track drought metrics and transmit automated advisories to farmers via SMS, voice calls, and dedicated mobile applications.
He stated that the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) charts long-term technical mitigation priorities through 2050. Emphasizing basin-wide hydrological management across the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna systems, he noted that dry-season flows are crucial for checking soil degradation. Domestically, under the National Green Mission, Bangladesh is planting 250 million trees, expanding coastal mangrove barriers against salinity ingress, and executing engineering plans to re-excavate 20,000 kilometers of canals and rivers over the next five years.
Welcoming the setup of the International Drought Resilience Observatory, the Minister proposed linking Bangladesh’s BAMIS infrastructure with the global monitoring network while urging advanced technology transfer to engineer salt-tolerant and drought-resilient crop varieties.
The high-level session was attended by foreign ministers, country delegates, and representatives from global agencies including FAO, ESCAP, IOM, UNICEF, UNDRR, UNDP, IFAD, AIIB, and the African Union.
//DBTech/THP/SME//
