Shariatpur's Dream House wins UN Risk Award

A Bangladeshi project to build floating houses that can survive floods, earthquakes and storms has won the United Nation's Risk Award 2019.

Nandan Mukherjee, designer and planner of the project, received the prestigious award on behalf of Bangladesh at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference in Geneva on Friday.

In a ceremony, Mami Mizutori, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), handed over the award to Nandan Mukherjee, the Bangladeshi researcher of UK's University of Dundee.

The UN has been giving away the Tk 10 million prize since 2012.

The project titled 'A Dream House' was selected from among 104 applications of 48 countries in response to call for applications focussed on coastal resilience in face of climate and environmental changes.

Jointly supported by the University of Dundee and Bangladeshi organisation Resilience Solution, the project house constructed in Shariatpur's Monai Hawladarkandi village ensures agriculture, fisheries and poultry production inside of it through special arrangements.

After winning the award, Nandan Mukherjee said to Prothom Alo, "The house is not only eco-friendly but can be built cheaply. The house won't even emit carbon."
"With the prize money, we'll build more such houses in the coastal areas of Bangladesh and research further for reducing their costs," he added.

Brac University's Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER) was also associated with the project.