Full Coverage: Bangladesh

30.01.2008

25.01.2008 Avian influenza or bird flu continues to spread in Bangladesh, with 84 poultry farms now affected. Health officials are worried over the lack of awareness among local people and are monitoring workers who took part in the culling.

21.01.2008 Hundreds of thousands of shrimp farmers face uncertainty as some 6,000 shrimp farms and hatcheries in Bangladesh's cyclone-hit southern districts were washed away. The countryÂ’s shrimp exports, a major foreign exchange earner, have suffered an estimated loss of US$ 36 million.

16.01.2008 Veterinary workers are killing thousands of chickens in two infected districts in West Bengal. As fears of bird flu mount in the eastern Indian state, officials are working hard to cull 400,000 birds in order to contain the spread of the avian virus.

15.01.2008 The Sono filter, a local innovation, offers hope to millions in Bangladesh who lack access to safe drinking water. Arsenic contaminated groundwater exists in all but one of the countryÂ’s 64 districts, and adversely impacts the health of those who ingest it over long periods.

10.01.2008 Are think-tanks staffed by scientists a luxury that only rich nations can afford? Ehsan Masood meets the founders of four institutes that set out to help developing countries to think for themselves.
From Nature News

10.01.2008 The use of urea deep placement (UDP) increases rice yields by 25 per cent while using up less quantities of urea. The Bangladesh government now plans to extend this technique to various sub-districts for effective fertiliser usage and increased food production.

10.01.2008 While the Bangladesh cyclone claimed thousands of lives and left millions homeless, there remain large parts of the population who have gone missing. Bangladesh Red Crescent is now working on a database of those missing, mostly women and children, to help link them up with their loved ones.