BANGLADESH SINK OR SWIM ?
Many recent news stories highlight Bangladesh and its people living with and dying from climate change. This is both a moving and disturbing story – a wake-up call to all of us about the direct environmental and indirect social and political consequences of our (the developed world’s) dependency on fossil fuels. In this most vulnerable country climate change and its effects are not some future eventuality because on average floods inundate 20.5% of the country and can reach as high as 70% during extreme conditions. The effects are devastating and impact on people and livelihoods now. One of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 150 million cannot be held responsible for the CO2 emissions that are the cause of disastrous climate change impacts that the country is experiencing. Bangladesh accounts for only 0.3% of the world’s carbon emissions so not much room for cuts there!
During a visit to Bangladesh in 2004 we witnessed another of the climate change impacts – flash floods from increased melt in the Himalayas which engulfed the rice crop in the Sunamganj district only a week or two before the harvest. During a boat journey to assess the impact on schools and families in the town of Sulla it appeared that fishermen were hard at work – it turned out that they were salvaging their rice crop from beneath the floodwater. The ‘rotten rice’ harvest provided only about 20% of the potential yield. This happened in April before the disastrous monsoon floods of that year.
If climate change is not addressed urgently, there will be environmental migration on a massive scale or do we wish to be accused of ‘climatic genocide’? The developed world needs to help Bangladesh mitigate the impacts of climate change as well as find appropriate adaptation techniques. But more fundamentally can we find ways to compensate the people of Bangladesh for the damage we have already caused?
The map of Bangladesh looks as though a celestial sledgehammer has been aimed hard at its southern end shattering it like a car wind screen. .
Shards of land poke awkwardly into the Bay of Bengal and the country is splintered by countless hairline cracks the sea seeping deep into every wrinkle!
The region is a vast delta basin. Bangladesh is one of the most waterlogged countries in the world, crushed like a sodden sponge in the arm pit of Asia. This makes it one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
Population: projected to be 242 million by 2050
Pop. Growth rate declined from 2.1 % to 1.7% Labour force growth: 2.2%
Life expectancy: 62 years
Poverty (%of population below national poverty line): 50%
The pride of Bangladesh is its rivers with one of the largest networks in the world with a total number of about 700 rivers including tributaries, which have a total length of about 24,140 km.
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