Due to climate change, around 13.4 million people in Bangladesh plus many in South Asia will be affected as their life standard will decline.
The temperature of South Asia has risen in the last sixty years and, consequently, health and agriculture are being impacted adversely.
Such grim warnings were made at a World Bank seminar, highlighting South Asia as more vulnerable to climate change.
If this continues, by 2050, the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of Bangladesh will fall by 6.70 percent, the seminar revealed.
World Bank country director, Ximiao Fan, said: “in the last forty years, due to climate change, Bangladesh faced losses of around $64 billion; climate change is currently World Bank’s priority sector in Bangladesh.”
World Bank’s vice president, Hartwig Schafer, said: “the worst affected areas in Bangladesh due to climate change are Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban.”
Refugees are living here; there is also the risk of landslides and flood, he added.
Present at the event, finance minister, AMA Muhith, said: “the government has target to stay in power for the next five years because the incumbent party wants to transform Bangladesh into a developing nation.”
All development indicators in Bangladesh are hope inducing; however, from World Bank, Bangladesh expects loans at low interest rates, observed the minister.