Japan's Grant Aid for Environment and Climate Change and Promise from Bangladeshi People
Sadeque Hossain Khoka
Bangladesh Dhaka mayor
Our Bangladesh is a new country. In1954, East Pakistan and West Pakistan attained independence from India and, in 1972, East Pakistan got his independent nationality as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Since our country is less than 40 years old, we have developed the social system such as the politics, economy and welfare by trial and error method.
As you know, the Bangladeshi economic development ratio is tremendous and remarkable in several years and one famous economic prospect report said that Bangladesh is one of the "Next 11" countries which are expected to grow rapidly, placing after BRICs. For example, the Bangladeshi economic growth rate in 2007 was 6.2 percent, therefore, the transfiguration in the capital city, Dhaka, of late years makes us surprised. In addition, the rate of population growth also shows marked elevation and the total population in this country will be increased from 120million in the year of 2009 to 240million in 2050. Especially, in Dhaka city, the population has been increased not only by natural growth but also by inflow from the rural areas, therefore, this city seems to inflate day by day.
Under the circumstances above, we, Dhaka City Corporation implements a lot of work in order to improve the physical well-being of our citizens, to protect the properties of them and to provide comfortable lives to all our people. We understand that the waste issue is one of the most important ones in the urban problems, which to be handled carefully with extreme caution. Hence, we made a slogan "Clean Dhaka Green Dhaka" a couple of years ago and have advertised it everywhere in the city.
We possess the waste collecting vehicles, however, they will be useless within a few years due to getting older. This problem was very huge our headache, but luckily for us, we have become the first-recipient of the Environment and Climate Change Grant Aid in the world.
The components of this grant aid is 1) Garbage collecting vehicles (100 units), 2) Workshop for maintenance of the vehicles (1 building), 3) Technical assistant by three experts (environment education, vehicle maintenance, CNG gas) and we believe that those components are the most effective and efficient combination in considering the current status of Dhaka city.
The technical assistant described in 3) above will be finished the first phase by the end of July 2009 (the technical assistant is divided into 2 phases). The tender for 1) and 2) above were completed with the wonderful result because of the devoted effort by the member of JICS staff and we are now waiting for the arrival of new vehicles and workshop.
We sometimes forget to verify the reasons with referring back the past if a thing goes well, we should not forget that some organizations other than JICS may not achieve the result as smooth like this. Taking this opportunity, we would like to express our sincere gratitude and deep respect on the knowledge based on much experience and the ability to take action.
I believe that the citizens of Dhaka city can improve our country and make clean our country like Japan. If your government and people support us continuously, it would be appreciated very much.
(Edit: September, 2009)