Bangladesh: A nation in fear of drowning
An incredible new piece on climate change linking it directly to river erosions in Bangladesh. Drishtipat London is going to work on the issue of climate change this year to raise awareness on west’s responsibility on this and the danger it brings towards the future of Bangladesh. Also another goal is connect people working outside Bangladesh on this issue with the folks in Bangladesh who are working at the grass root level. If you are interested to volunteer to this cause, please write to info AT london DOT drishtipat dot org
The once lush island of Aralia is disappearing under rising waters as flooding becomes more frequent, temperatures increase and disease kills four people a month
It is hard to gauge the exact extent of the local devastation caused by climate change because severe flooding and catastrophic river erosion are part of every day life in rural Bangladesh. But the island of Aralia, in the Haor flood plain of north-east Bangladesh has, in the past 50 years, diminished to a fifth of its size, according to its older residents Ask anyone over 40 about the island of their childhoods and they describe fertile fields, green trees and animals, an island of plenty, where children grew up healthy and went to school. Today, Shamola’s misfortunes are becoming the norm as flooding and river erosion become ever more common. Non-government agencies working with Bangladesh’s poor, as well as scientists throughout the world, are convinced that climate change is to blame for the dramatic increase in this flooding.
With a population of 150 million, Bangladesh is the world’s most densely populated country. A series of straddling deltas of some of the world’s biggest rivers, Bangladesh is at risk not only from rising sea levels, but the increased flow of water caused by more rain and glacial melt from the Himalayas. At this rate of flooding and erosion, 20 per cent of Bangladesh could be under water by 2100. All this despite the average Bangladeshi using just one tenth of the carbon emissions of any European, and one 25th of the average citizen of the United States.
And the people whose lives are most catastrophically affected by this flooding and erosion are, inevitably, the poorest and most vulnerable. As Nazmul Chadhury, of the UK’s Practical Action, says: “Forget about making poverty history; climate change will make poverty permanent.” Climate change may not immediately cause life-threatening catastrophe for the very poor and vulnerable, but when you visit Shamola and her neighbours on the island of Aralia you see that they are, statistically, inextricably linked.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Interesting article, very white man’s burden.
River erosion is a consistantly impoverishing hazard in bangladesh. Physically this is because of high sediment load in the river, and land softness. Projected impacts of CC, more extreme weather events and a different rainfall regime will have weird effects on top of what is already happening. But admins statement is wrong, but common to the ngomeistars and international press i have come across in my study of this phenomena.
Im sorry that the people in the article and the independant/dp editorial board think that this is a credible idea. That river erosion is directly connected to climate change. Maybe i will have the opportunity to present other information to you.
Let us not forget how for a long time bangladeshi blamestorming poured its half baked attention on himalayan deforestation being the source of all our floods. These myths dont save our people from harm, they are just reminders of our foolishness and intellectual dependance. I hope the fakhrudin era will usher in some better thinking.
Our grandfathers and great gandmothers faced river erosion also, but in different social conditions. Please don’t lets use this development-climate change PR piece as ammunition to cast the primary resposibility elsewhere.
Campaigning NGOs make that mistake as they well meaningly seek to win the attention of the Pharoah, and im one of the people who loves Practical Action, if not its errors.
Please understand how hurtful to the solution propagating an easily understandable falsehood can be. Numbers, maps, research and honesty matter here. After food shortage, but before expensive medicare, one study showed it was the second largest contributer to landlessness.
I remember a practical action ricksha in gaibandha, with the following message written in bangla ‘To reduce green house gasses, use these special stoves’. This ricksha was in one of the poorest parts of the country and just speaks volumes about what is going on in the Bangladeshi mind.
ps. this is not denial of CC.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Whats happening to the country?
‘Some 60 students of a high school (in Barisal) Thursday cried themselves to sickness, 10 of them hospitalised. The reason, four of their favourite teachers were transferred.’
April 21st, 2007 at 3:34 am
Yes, climate change is a problem. Yes, in all probability it is going to affect Bangladesh. No, this article is not the best way to bring attention to this problem.
The article conflates plain old river erosion with rising sea levels, without offering a shred of empirical evidence that the country is drowning. To cover up its shortcomings, it adds stories about babies dying and a small community crumbling.
What a piece of heart-tugging intellectual dishonesty. Unforgivable… let’s move on to something that matters, shall we?
May 21st, 2007 at 10:45 pm
First, thanks to Drishtipat for taking up the issue of climate change. It is indeed a human rights issue as the poor will suffer/are suffering the most (does not matter if they live in Bangladesh or the UK). However, as a densely populated country with low-lying topography, funnel shaped coast exposing the land to cyclones and tidal surges, seasonal flooding, wide spread poverty, poor institutional development etc.. our homeland stands to be one of the worst victims of climate change. Yes, climate change is already here and not something that may affect us in the future. That’s why the two-pronged strategies of mitigation and adaptation are equally important. The more we prolong mitigation work; adaptation is going to be even more costly and difficult. While appropriate policies are needed to be adopted and implemented in the international level… on individual levels, we really cannot afford to blame the West any more and we all need to take the responsibility by making conscious life style choices (in many cases, the poor are already forced to live in a sustainable manner, they recycle, reuse and their consumption levels are very low). In contrast, we are ones who drive gas-guzzling vehicles, drink coca cola and waste water while poor people are remain thirsty for water in many parts of the earth. My point is: climate change is a global problem and therefore, is a question of how we (the rich) bear responsibility and take action. For the rich, our geographical location really does not matter. With all the scientific data that’s available now, if we don’t become proactive, our children will have a very, very difficult life (especially if they live in Bangladesh but also in New York, Florida etc) and they will blame us. Of our Bangladeshi children, those who have meager resources and live in close contact with nature and thereby are more dependent on climate -sensitive resources such as local water and food supplies will suffer the most but the children (of whatever ethnic origin) in the so called developed countries will also be victims (the point is made very clearly in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”).
With the above caveat, I agree that the above article from the Independent is probably not the best one to be put forward as a lead to your climate change page. While river bank erosion causes serious hardships and economic losses, it’s mostly a natural process and as a cycle new ‘chars’ also develop in the river beds. Impacts of long-term, human induced climate change are manifold. According to the IPCC WG II Fourth Assessment Report (2007), climate change impacts “frequently reflect projected changes in precipitation and other climate variables in addition to temperature, sea level and concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide.” The latest IPCC Report also states that, “coastal areas, especially heavily-populated mega-delta regions in South, East and Southeast Asia, will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding from the sea and, in some mega-deltas, flooding from the rivers”. Additionally, “endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods and droughts are expected to rise in East, South and Southeast Asia due to projected changes in the hydrological cycle associated with global warming. Increases in coastal water temperature would exacerbate the abundance and/or toxicity of cholera in South Asia.”
While coastal erosion with sea level rise makes our home land vulnerable, I am not sure we can attribute river bank erosion, and natural flooding directly to the long-term impacts of climate change. This touching article makes some good points such as the human induced nature of climate change, the ill effects of deforestation and population growth and finally, the story of Shamola is indeed heart-wrenching . However, I think this article is stretched a bit too thin as it tries to cover a number of things, which are not necessarily linked, and can be an ammunition to climate change nay-sayers.
Any way, thanks again and keep up the good work.