International engineering and project management consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV has signed a £6.2 million contract (€10.5 million) with the Bangladesh Water Development Board for engineering consultancy services to protect Bangladesh’s vulnerable coastal zone, home to millions of people.
Over the next six years Royal HaskoningDHV will be responsible for the detailed design, construction supervision and project management support of hundreds of kilometres of embankment to protect 17 coastal polders and its inhabitants and their livelihoods from natural disasters and climate change. The total project area is some 1,000 square kilometres.
The contract is part of the World Bank financed Coastal Embankment Improvement Project, Phase-1 (CEIP-1) of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Scheme takes climate change into account
Mr Sarafat Hossain Khan, CEIP-1 Project Director of the Bangladesh Water Development Board said:
“The vulnerability of the coastal population is on the rise due to climate change. Climate variability will accentuate the intrinsic risks facing coastal Bangladesh. These risks span cyclones and storm surges, river bank erosion and vulnerability of islands and chars, sea level rise, saline water intrusion, and coastal river erosion. A recent study indicated that if a 10 year return period cyclone hit our coastal area today, about 8 million people will be affected by inundation depths greater than 3 metres.”
Royal HaskoningDHV’s Project Director Mr Roelof Moll added:
“We are very proud to be part of the many projects the Government of Bangladesh is launching to protect their coastal zone. The area holds numerous natural resources including fresh water, oil and gas and minerals. Making the area more resilient to natural disasters and climate change will provide resilience to vulnerable communities and revitalise social and economic developments.”
The contract was signed 30 December 2014 at a special signing ceremony in Dhaka. Royal HaskoningDHV will be working with a team of four sub-consultants: Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) and from Bangladesh: DevConsultants (DevCon), Design Planning & Management Consultants (DPM) and the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM).
With 7,000 staff at 100 offices in 35 countries, the independent, international engineering and project management consultancy has over 130 years of experience in aviation, buildings, energy, industry, infrastructure, maritime, mining, rural and urban areas and water.
Enpure Ltd and Clean TeQ Water Ltd have announced a collaboration agreement to bring Clean TeQ Water's Moving Bed Ion Exchange-based nutrient removal technologies to water utilities across the UK.
Near-real-time microbial monitoring of wastewater discharge and bathing waters is now possible thanks to the BactoSense ID solution created by Swiss-based bNovate Technologies.
ABB has launched AquaMaster+™, a digital platform for smart water network management, designed to help water utilities monitor, analyze and manage their water networks, preventing pipeline water losses and optimizing operations.
Craig Nienaber, Business Development Manager for Safe Access Solutions (SAS) at HUBER Technology, explores why the company is seeing a growing level of interest in its safe access solutions for critical infrastructure providers, including their application in wastewater treatment assets.
Southern Water has released film and images showing what it’s like to walk inside Hampshire’s expanded Yew Hill underground reservoir for the very last time, before it gets filled with water.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.