Parliamentarian Sapkota addresses Regional Climate Summit

 Madhav Sapkota, CPN (Maoist Centre) parliamentarian, has said impacts seen in some mega infrastructure projects recently initiated by Nepal was due to effects of climate change.

Delivering a presentation on the 'Sustainable Water and Waste Management and the Strengthening Local Governance for Attaining Climate Resilient Development' in the Regional Climate Summit ongoing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sapkota said that the increasing risks of natural disasters such as flood, landslide in Nepal in recent days were due to the impact of climate change.

He said, "The government of Nepal and concerned agencies are aware about taking forward the development and infrastructure related works with minimal environmental damages."

Stating that development works related experiences of countries in the South Asia, especially India and Bangladesh who are racing ahead in terms of development, would be useful for Nepal, the Parliamentarian informed that Nepal had been advancing developmental works and environmental conservation simultaneously.

He further said that since Nepal is at high risk area of climate change, it need strong effort support from its neighours and world community to move ahead saving itself from the impacts of climate changes

The three-day event organized by the Climate Parliament Bangladesh has altogether 40 parliamentarians from Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The Nepali delegation attending the event comprises Nepali Congress's Pradeep Kumar Poudel, CPN (UML)'s Thakur Gaire, Rastriya Swatantra Party's Shobita Gautam and Uday Bhandari, Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of Infrastructure Development.

Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhary, the Speaker of the Bangladesh's parliament, had inaugurated the event in September 8. Ambassadors of various countries as well as representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and organizations working in the sector of climate change are also participaying in the Summit.

Bangladesh has created a separate structure called 'Climate Parliament' within the parliament to find ways to avoid the adverse effects of climate changes.

---