Socioeconomic Benefits to the General Public of Improved Hydrometeorological Products and Services in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. With climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme events is expected to increase and negatively impact the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities such as people living in coastal areas and in arid and semi-arid regions of the country. Bangladesh is also highly vulnerable to a range of hydrological and meteorological (hydro-met) disasters such as droughts, floods, severe thunderstorms, storm surges and tropical cyclones. These ongoing weather, water and climate vulnerabilities are likely to undermine the significant achievements in increasing incomes, reducing poverty and enhancing food security. As part a World Bank investment project to improve hydro-meteorological products and services in Bangladesh, an economic analysis was undertaken to provide an economic and financial justification for an. The primary objective of the economic analysis was to assess costs and benefits at the project level as well as a range of costs and benefits associated with strengthening hydro-met services across multiple time-periods including both direct and indirect impacts from proposed World Bank support. This presentation focuses on a survey of the general public of Bangladesh with the objectives of eliciting information on respondents’ (a) perceived impacts from and vulnerability to hydro-met events; (b) sources, perceptions and uses of hydro-met information and preferences for improved information, (c) respondents’ perceptions of climate change and its causes and impacts, (d) value (that is, willingness to pay (WTP)) for current hydro-met information, and (e) value for potentially improved hydro-met information.