A coastal resilience project that pioneers floating houses in Bangladesh has won the prestigious RISK Award for 2019.



The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori presented the €100,000-prize, a media statement issued from Geneva said.
Nandan Mukherjee accepted the prize, sponsored by the Munich Re Foundation, on behalf of Dundee University in Scotland, and Resilience Solution from Bangladesh.
The floating house has been designed such that it can give shelter to a family of six, reports Dhaka Tribune.
According to the report, the family could survive flooding and produce their own food including vegetables, chickens and fish.
The organizers, the Munich Re Foundation, Global Risk Forum (GRF) Davos, and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction received 109 applications from 48 countries in response to a call for applications focused on coastal resilience in the face of climate and environmental changes.
In his acceptance speech, Nandan Mukherjee said the idea of disaster-resilient homes was prompted by a story he heard from a woman, who lost a child in a flood and was then abandoned by her husband.
“She blames herself every single day, and she told me that she would never take another child or try for a family again in her life because she was unable to safeguard poor lives,” he said.
The outside walls of the house could be used for vertical gardens, harvest rainwater for self-sufficiency in drinking water, utilize renewable energy solutions for electricity and further utilize modern technologies like aquaponics and poultry rearing for livelihood and waste recycling.