As a result of rising sea levels generated by global warming will displace about 20 million people in low-lying Bangladesh, a study by a state-run think-tank said on Friday.

“The sea level will rise at least by three metres (yards) submerging some 18 percent of the country by 2050,” the Dhaka-based Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) said.

IWM was set up in 1996 for planning and management of Bangladesh’s water resources and to monitor rise in sea level and its probable adverse effects.

Bangladesh needs at least 4.17 billion US dollars for the construction of polders to save the lives of coastal people from sea level rise and storm surge, according to a recent study.

The study reveals that the sea level will rise at least by three metres due to global warming , sending the present coastal embankments under the seawater if those are not raised by 4 to 6 metres.

A total of Tk 287,634 million will be needed for works for the adaptation to storm surge and sea level rise — Tk 99,609 million for raising embankments of costal polders, Tk 387 million for turfing, Tk 78,659 million for Toe protection, Tk 21,936 million for land acquisition (14,061 hectares), Tk 83,569 million for major protection work (167 kilometres), Tk 81 million for Velivera plantation, Tk 81 million for the improvement of internal drainage system and Tk 332 million forestation, according to the study.

The study stresses the need for planting trees in the costal belt to help subside storm surge and thus save lives and assets of the people. “A 600-metre wide forest will reduce the surge level by 50 cm.”

According to another study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the sea-level rise will wipe out more cultivated land in Bangladesh than anywhere in the world.

By 2050, rice production is expected to drop by 10 percent while wheat production by 30 percent due to water logging.

Experts fear Bangladesh will suffer most in the near future because of global climate change if it fails to take any effective measures.

Referring to the geographical situation of the Netherlands, the water expert said though the country is situated under sea level, its people are living there using cross dams surrounding the country and modern technologies.

“Bangladesh will also need to construct high dams in coastal areas using modern technologies. High power pumps will have to be set up to reduce waterlogging to ensure smooth farm activities in this region,” he said.

According to him, the rich countries, particularly the western ones, are responsible for the global climate change, as they are emitting huge Carbon dioxide gas harming the environment.

“Bangladesh should draw attention of the world leaders in the ongoing climate change conference in Copenhagen and should seek funds for adaptation,” he suggested.

According to UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the global temperature would rise up to 1 degree centigrade in summer and 1.5 degrees in winter by 2050, resulting in sea-level rise by up to half a metre that will engulf 11 percent land in Bangladesh, affecting nearly 60 lakh people along its coastal belt.

“Only embankments with deep forestation along the coast and coastal rivers can protect millions of people,” it said.

The existing embankments should be raised up to six metres to protect the coastal villages from being devoured by sea, the study said.

Bangladesh has said it would need $10 billion from big polluting nations to help it adapt to powerful storms, floods and rising seas.

Pacnet will spend on the West Asia Crossing (WAC), a submarine cable network that will connect India and Asia.

“An ongoing concern for customers and service providers in India is the current cost of international bandwidth, which despite recent cost reductions in the market, still remains high by international standards,” said Bill Barney, Pacnet CEO.

“To address this and help reduce the cost of connectivity for companies and individuals in India, Pacnet plans to build WAC, a cable system that will connect our existing pan-Asian EAC-C2C cable system to India.”

“TeleGeography expects demand of international bandwidth to India to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 83 per cent between 2009 and 2015,” said Alan Mauldin, TeleGeography research director. “In addition to the growth of domestic demand within India, the country is also a major hub for international submarine cables, linking Europe and the Middle East with Asia.”

Mauldin further noted that while four new cables will soon be installed between the West coast of India and the Middle East, Pacnet’s new India-Singapore cable will be the first system deployed between the East coast of India and Singapore since 2005.

WAC will be built based on the “joint build” approach that was pioneered with the Unity cable system, where each member of the partnership is able to operate independently while benefiting from the economies of scale of the project. “While we are already in talks with potential partners for WAC, we are also considering fully funding the entire project,” said Barney.

The planned WAC cable system will have a design capacity of 6-8Tbit/s. It will connect India, through a landing station in Chennai, to both Malaysia and Singapore. By offering dual landing points in South East Asia, this will provide added protection from cable failure.

WAC is also designed to offer the flexibility of extending connectivity into Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through separate branching units, as well as the possibility of a second cable landing point in Mumbai to offer additional capacity to cables landing off the west coast of India.

The new WAC cable is expected to cost an estimated Rs.701.13 crore ($150 million) and will take approximately two years to construct, with a ready-for-service date targeted around early 2012. Pacnet is currently in discussion with submarine cable suppliers and expects to announce the award of the supply contract in early 2010.

Pacnet’s latest initiative comes on the back of its application for National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licenses in India.

The company recently received “Letters of Intent” from the Department of Telecommunications for its NLD and ILD license application, and is currently completing the required formalities. Pacnet expects to receive the licenses by the end of the year.

Dhaka stocks perked up Wednesday as investors went for bargain hunting in a market that saw prices attractive following recent fall.

The prime bourse’s benchmark general index or DGEN rose 59.26 points or 1.36 percent to close at 4415.27. The DSI or all-share price index ended on 3676.44, up 45.75 points or 1.26 percent.

Blue chip DSE-20 index edged up 9.81 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 2514.30.

The market bellwether, banks, ended the day mixed with quite a few of them gaining significantly, maintaining a trend of recovery from the recent losses.

Most of the non-bank financial institutions and insurers gained while mutual funds shared a mixed trend of rise and fall.

All power issues edged up, but the day turned out to be a great one for oil stocks.

Sate-owned entities Padma Oil, Meghna Petroleum and Jamuna Oil rose almost 15 percent, 10 percent and 2 percent respectively. All of them made places at the list of top 20 shares.

The day’s trading left 173 issues out of 234 traded gainers while 55 losers and six held steady.

Meghna Petroleum came out as the turnover leader with shares worth Tk 392.205 million changing hands followed by Lanka Bangla Finance, Jamuna Oil, Beximco and City Bank.

Market operators found the trend as “healthy”.

“Today’s [Wednesday] trading seems to be a healthy one with a balance in buying and selling,” DSE senior vice-president Saiful Islam told

Investors went for buying those shares that were lucrative following their recent falls, especially the banks while other sectors moved rationally, he added.

Meanwhile, the Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended up with about 65 percent of the scrips gaining in value.

The benchmark Selective Categories Index or the CSCX ended at 8265.18, surging 89.18 points or 1.09 percent.

AIMS 1st mutual fund topped the turnover list with shares of Tk 692,500 traded followed by Dacca Dyeing, Bex Tex, Metro Spinning and Grameenphone.