Dhaka, March 9 – Germany will provide $40 million in grant for Climate resilient infrastructure mainstreaming in Bangladesh.
A Financing Agreement to the tune of $40 million has been signed on Thursday between the Bangladesh and KfW, Development Bank German Federal Government.The funding will support implementation of the project “Climate Resilient Infrastructure Mainstreaming (CRIM) in Bangladesh.
The agreement signed between Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Kazi Shofiqul Azam, and Member of the Management Committee, Europe and Asia, KfW Development Bank, Frankfurt, Germany Roland Siller on behalf of their respective government.
The signing ceremony was attended by Finance Minister of Bangladesh AMA Muhith, and Secretary, Local Government Division Abdul Malek at ERD.
After signing the agreement fiancé minister said Germany is particularly concern about the climate change affect and come forward to provide support to Bangladesh.
I hope this support will help to save the coastal belt to face the challenges of the climate change affect.
He said this project will be implemented in 20 upazilas of coastal district Bhola, Barguna and Stakhira.
The minister said coastal districts are particularly at risk from extreme weather, a risk which will be exacerbated by climate change impacts such as increased seasonal variation, higher precipitation levels, and rising sea levels.
The project establishes a national centre of excellence to gather, develop, and share climate resilience infrastructure knowledge. Rural infrastructure development will be supported by constructing 45 new cyclone shelters and renovating 20 existing shelters.
The total cost of project is $82,75 million. Out of which a grant of $40 million has been granted from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The German Federal Government provides parallel co-financing of $15 million through KfW, and the contribution of the Government of Bangladesh is $27,75 million as a part of supporting the initiative in areas of climate change adaptation.
The purpose of CRIM project is to construct and renovate cyclone shelters and critical access road to protect lives in a rural coastal region of Bangladesh; developing urban infrastructure and safeguarding vulnerable city-dwellers from climate risk; and also to establish a national “Center of Excellence for Climate Resilience Infrastructure” to inform and guide future infrastructure development throughout the country.
The implementation period of the project is six (6) years. The project will be implemented by the “Local Government Division” of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives and the executing agency is Local Government Engineering Department (LGED).
The project Climate Resilient Infrastructure Mainstreaming (CRIM) in Bangladesh is the first project approved by the GCF for Bangladesh. – Staff Reporter
