The Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) financed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the Government of UK (earlier called as DFID) through the World Bank's PARCC Trust Fund, support innovation challenges across SAR countries that will crowd source innovative and disruptive technology solutions for resilience through grant awards, matchmaking and pilot-testing. The CIC aims to facilitate innovative solutions for their application and scale-up across different sectors, and tiers (national, sub-national and local/community) for greater impact. Science Connect Ltd. from Bangladesh and Action Nepal from Nepal in association with Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand) has won project from this fund through a highly competitive bidding/evaluation. The title for which this consortium secured the funding is 'Climate Resilient Infrastructure for Social Transformation and Adaptation (CRISTA). The project will be implemented in Monohordi Upazila of Narshingdi District. The project in Bangladesh will aim to develop innovative actions backed by the state-of-the-art science data and techniques to develop a resilient power supply system, specially at local levels. The local government agency and local people/stakeholder will be actively engaged in the implementation of the project.

Water scarcity, wastewater management problems, biodiversity and nutrient loss, the negative impacts of tourism on water resources are common problems in water-scarce touristic areas. HYDROUSA aims at solving these issues through the utilisation of unconventional water resources like treated wastewater and harvested rainwater for low purity water demand (e.g. toilet flushing, irrigation, washing machine, etc.), water storage in winter to reduce stress on aquifer during the touristic season, and the use of low water consumption devices (e.g. ultralow flush toilets, air injected tabs, and localised irrigation). Pilot-scale systems are being developed in the Greek islands of Tinos, Mykonos and Lesbos where declining water resource is a major problem that is exacerbated by climate change and tourism. The main objective of HYDROUSA is to offer a set of solutions for these problems that are easily adaptable and replicable around the world. Although Bangladesh has large water resources, freshwater resources are affected by water pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural areas while seawater intrusion is a severe issue due to the country's topography and rising sea level. Therefore, Bangladesh and more largely, the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta could be ideal replication sites from HYDROUSA. Moreover, water reuse, water treatment, and rainwater harvesting have been identified as a solution to mitigate water pollution and seasonal water shortages in Bangladesh1. Finally, HYDROUSA fits into Bangladesh's water policy by optimizing water resource management and would thus be supported by governmental and local authorities.

Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCB) intends to construct a 230 kV Double Circuit Transmission Line from Rooppur to Baghabari. This transmission line crosses over the Gumani river at Pungali Union, Faridpur Upazila of Pabna District. In this contexts, understanding of the geo-morphological process of this river is necessary for identifying the appropriate locations for river crossing towers of the proposed transmission line. The morphological changes happened due to water discharge dynamics and consequential changes in the river bed levels as well as the changes in the channel alignment need to be assessed in this connection. The KEC International Limited intended to conduct a morphological study of the Gumani river to find out the suitable locations of towers of power transmission line (TL) on the river banks. The Science Connect Ltd. undertook the geo- morphological of the said river study as per the objectives set by the KEC International Limited. The aim of the study is to find out the most suitable locations in both the banks of the river of transmission line crossing towers of the proposed 230 kV Double Circuit Transmission Line. The specific objectives of the study are to
• assess the geological information of the area including geomorphology, geological structure;
• analyze the hydro-morphological process of the Gumani River;
• analyze the historical channel and bank line movement of the Gumani River and predict possible likely future changes of the river;
• estimate the scour depth of the river
• develop the best options for river crossing locations based on the geo-morphological assessment of the river.
In this connection Science Connect Ltd conducted this morphological study by gathering primary data through field surveys and performing necessary geospatial analysis. The key findings in this study are given below which may help to make informed decisions in regards to identify the most suitable locations of towers for transmission of power from Rooppur to Baghabari.