Icddr,b launches climate change, health resource website to provide specific data

Climate change and health resource website has been launched to provide specific Bangladesh data about comprehensive resource for understanding the effects of climate change on health.

This website serves as a one-stop resource for the latest data, research, and information on this important and rapidly evolving topic.

The website information was shared with journalists at a programme at the icddr,b in Mohakhali of the capital on Tuesday.

The Research for Decision Makers (RDM) activity, icddr,b and Data for Impact (D4I) organized the special session with health journalists, giving them a hands-on tour to the web-based platform https://cch.icddrb.org/.

Dr. Peter Kim Streatfield, Emeritus Scientist at icddr,b and the project lead, delivered presentation on how climate change is affecting human as well as global health.

He stressed on the data scarcity issue and how it’s hard to find good realizable and real time data on climate change in Bangladesh.

Tanvir Ahmad of the icddr,b demonstrated the website’s features showcasing its ability to provide real-time information on climate change and its impacts on health, including temperature, humidity, and air quality data updated hourly through an external Air Quality Device based in Mohakhali.

The website provides a plethora of information and tools regarding the effects of climate change on health in Bangladesh, including data on vector-borne diseases, heat waves and heat stress, air pollution, and food security, among others.

The website also provides information on climatic disasters, such as cyclones, floods, and droughts, as well as local and global climate change-related factors, such as sea level rise, salinity intrusion, sea surface temperature, atmospheric CO2 and global warming and greenhouse gas emission.

This site is developed with support from USAID’s Research for Decision Makers (RDM) initiative.
Rashed Rabbi, President of Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum described needs for such a website as a resource hub, which policymakers could utilize as a planning and decision making tool.

The session ended with the notion that, though the site was developed under a project, icddr,b will keep this website live and update it on regular basis.