Transport in Bangladesh: Building Better Roads - SAR-CLIMATE

Transport in Bangladesh: Building Better Roads

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Bangladesh has undergone significant economic growth in the last couple of years. Rural infrastructure development has played a major role in ensuring economic mobility and development.

Rural roads are the lifelines that help rural people get connected and move their merchandise and agricultural products all throughout the country.

Road infrastructure is balancing the growth of the national economy and rural economic development.

Unplanned road infrastructure can cause either flooding or erosion, ultimately leading to waterlogging and sedimentation. Also, non- resilient infrastructure is more likely to be washed away by floods and other climate-induced hazards.

This means that ensuring climate resilience in this sector is imperative to allow other sectors to rebound after disasters and extreme climate-related events.

However, the existing road design standards in the country lack climate resilience, especially in areas prone to flooding and storm surges that may cause erosion and damage to roads.

Cyclone/storms are the leading disaster types in Bangladesh, claiming 60% of total death counts around the world, and flooding is the second most damaging disaster, totaling almost 75% of natural hazard-related disasters affecting Bangladesh.

Currently, only 36% of 3.5 million kilometres of roads in the country are paved. Rural roads are under the jurisdiction of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), which is under the direct authority of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives.

The need to develop an adaptation and resilience approach for transport infrastructure projects in every phase, especially for rural roads and rail lines, is well-recognized.

Different types of climate change impacts will require different types of adaptation measures. The adaptation options for existing infrastructure, including identifying vulnerable locations using vulnerability assessment results, are recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

For example, extreme precipitation causes flash floods or riverine floods. Some of the critical recommendations for controlling the potential effects of these floods are: establishing flood modeling studies supplemented by improved design; improving construction standards using climate-resilient materials; and maintaining surface drainage.

Capacity-building activities like the improvisation of policies and regulations with disaster preparedness training are also defined as resilience-building measures.

The Government of Bangladesh emphasizes the development and maintenance of rural roads with climate resilient designs by 2025. Bangladesh aspires to achieve 100% readiness for disasters by year 2041, using the strategic guidelines provided by Bangladesh’s 8th Five-Year Plan (July 2020-June 2025).

Published in 2020, this is the first plan supporting the Perspective Plan 2021-2041 (PP2041) and providing strategic guidelines to develop climate-, disaster- and impact-resilient rural transportation networks.

In simple terms, it emphasizes the prioritization of roads to accelerate economic growth.

This Five-Year Plan addresses strategies and specific objectives and targets for rural road development, operation, maintenance, and strategic priorities for rural road networks in Bangladesh.

A total of 16,000 km of two-lane rural roads are targeted to be constructed with resilient climate designs by 2025, as per the 8th Five-Year Plan. In addition, Bangladesh’s PP-2041 supports the development of climate-resilient infrastructure towards achieving 100% readiness for disasters by the year 2041.

The Government of Bangladesh’s commitment to eradicate poverty and strengthen rural roads will not only enhance connectivity and accessibility of remote areas in Bangladesh, but also create an opportunity for people living in rural Bangladesh to have dependable and climate resilient infrastructure during disasters and post-disaster periods.

The future of Bangladesh’s economy depends on building better roads to create climate resilient transport sectors all over the country.

The writer is Resilient Transport Specialist at ADPC.

Email: naureen.laila@adpc.net

About Post Author

paul

paul@abu.org.my

http://wpx2.abu.org.my/

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