§ Mr. Tom ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the United Kingdom currently doing to help Bangladesh to prevent or to mitigate the effects of flooding.
§ Mrs. ChalkerFollowing the serious flooding in Bangladesh in 1988 we hosted an international conference in London on 11 and 12 December 1989 which reviewed and endorsed a rolling five-year flood action plan prepared for the Bangladesh Government by the World bank.
Britain agreed to undertake four of the 26 activities proposed in the plan, which are aimed at establishing ways to control and alleviate the effects of flooding. These are a major regional study on how to address the flooding problem in north-west Bangladesh; supporting studies to evaluate the effectiveness of previous flood control schemes and to assess ways of improving their operation and maintenance; and a study on fisheries, designed to ensure that the relationship between flood alleviation measures and fishery resources is properly understood. Consultants undertook feasibility work in Bangladesh in 1990 on the regional and fisheries studies and the main study teams for all four activities have now begun to arrive in Bangladesh.