NICHE project helps Bangladesh Delta Plan
Climate change poses significant risks for Bangladesh. To deal with these risks, it is important that Bangladesh has high quality education and training institutions in the field of integrated water resources and land use management. The Netherlands Initiative for Capacity development in Higher Education (NICHE) supports the capacity development of these institutions.
The project has been developed by the Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology (DUET). It aims to contribute to the reduction of the impacts of climate change, through enhancing process management, knowledge management, research and development, technology transfer, and training in the area of water sector related climate change adaptation and disaster management.
Long term plan
Recently, Bangladesh and the Netherlands have signed an agreement on collaboration for drawing up a delta plan for Bangladesh. A delta plan for Bangladesh is a long-term (50 to 100 year) integrated and holistic plan to ensure safe living and sound economic development in the delta, while taking climate change into account (www.bangladeshdeltaplan.org).
The NICHE-DUET project contributes to formulating the delta plan in three ways:
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developing the capacity of research, teaching and training institutions;
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conducting in-depth thematic, regional, or project-level research and analysis on climate change related to the water sector; and
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establishing links between climate change working groups for sustainability.
Peoples approach
Learning from different stakeholders, particularly the public sector, about the interests and commitment for preparing and implementing a delta plan for Bangladesh is an important aspect of the project.
With the assistance of the NICHE project, DUET would like to introduce an approach that inspires people to come up with new solutions, enables potential resolutions and changes social perception of environmental measures.
Water engineers
The project will support DUET in its capacity development as a leading engineering education institution, to conduct appropriate research and development in this crucial area. The institution can then produce capable engineers who will in turn be expert practitioners and professionals in the water sector.