Bangladesh: erosion and flood
Mazeda Begum’s eyes well with tears as she describes how desperate poverty forced her to send her nine-year-old daughter to work as a servant in a strange city hundreds of miles away. That was five years ago and Mazeda has only been able to see Shada Rani once a year since.
‘I think she is being well looked after and she is getting enough to eat, which is more than I could provide for her,’ she says as she sits on the ground in the shade of a banyan tree.
Mazeda, 35, had spent her whole life in Balashighat, a village in the Gaibandha district of northern Bangladesh, until the river Tista began to erode the land she lived on. For three years in a row, she and her husband and three children were forced to abandon their house and build a new shelter further back from the crumbling riverbank.
Then, in 2000, the river finally swallowed all that remained of their small plot of farmland. Saving only what they could carry, the family had to flee by boat to a raised embankment a kilometre away, built by the government to protect a nearby town from floods.
Ever since, they have lived on the seven-metre high, five metre wide embankment which winds through waterlogged paddy fields, camping alongside 200 other families who also lost their homes to river erosion.
For the first few days after they arrived they sheltered under a tree, using plastic sheets to keep off the heavy rain. A few weeks later Mazeda’s husband built a house with palm leaves and straw. But without their land, where they used to grow wheat, rice and jute, they had no way of earning an income. So Mazeda decided to send Shada Rani to Dhaka. ‘I had no choice but to send her as we could not afford to feed the whole family,’ she says. ‘I did the right thing for her.’
Mazeda, 35, had spent her whole life in Balashighat, a village in the Gaibandha district of northern Bangladesh, until the river Tista began to erode the land she lived on. For three years in a row, she and her husband and three children were forced to abandon their house and build a new shelter further back from the crumbling riverbank.
Then, in 2000, the river finally swallowed all that remained of their small plot of farmland. Saving only what they could carry, the family had to flee by boat to a raised embankment a kilometre away, built by the government to protect a nearby town from floods.
Ever since, they have lived on the seven-metre high, five metre wide embankment which winds through waterlogged paddy fields, camping alongside 200 other families who also lost their homes to river erosion.
For the first few days after they arrived they sheltered under a tree, using plastic sheets to keep off the heavy rain. A few weeks later Mazeda’s husband built a house with palm leaves and straw. But without their land, where they used to grow wheat, rice and jute, they had no way of earning an income. So Mazeda decided to send Shada Rani to Dhaka. ‘I had no choice but to send her as we could not afford to feed the whole family,’ she says. ‘I did the right thing for her.’
Eroding lives
Coping with erosion River erosion and flooding are part of everyday life in many areas of Bangladesh. Most of the 200 families on the embankment have moved two or three times because of erosion and some say they have had to move as many as ten or 11 times during their lives.
They also say these events have become more common in the past few years.
They also say these events have become more common in the past few years.
‘Before, my father could predict how the river would change course over the years. But now it happens too fast for us to be able to predict,’ Mazeda says
Surveys conducted in villages and rural areas show that people in Bangladesh are aware that their weather patterns are changing, even though they may not understand why, and many are worried.
They are right to be. Bangladesh will be one of the countries hit hardest by climate change. More frequent floods, erosion and rising sea levels could reduce its landmass by more than a fifth, forcing millions of people to leave their homes and migrate in search of food, water and shelter. Climate change could also cause droughts in some parts of the country and lead to more and stronger cyclones.
The Tista is one of 230 rivers that criss-cross the country. Further downstream it becomes the Brahmaputra, one of three great rivers – the others are the Ganges and the Meghna – which together drain 175 million hectares of land. The outflow of water from Bangladesh is the third highest in the world after the Amazon and Congo systems. Although it is only the size of Greece, as much water flows through the country as through the whole of Europe. And with more than 140 million people, Bangladesh is among the most densely populated agricultural nations in the world. People must use every available piece of fertile land, including riverbanks – where they are at greater risk from flooding.
They are right to be. Bangladesh will be one of the countries hit hardest by climate change. More frequent floods, erosion and rising sea levels could reduce its landmass by more than a fifth, forcing millions of people to leave their homes and migrate in search of food, water and shelter. Climate change could also cause droughts in some parts of the country and lead to more and stronger cyclones.
The Tista is one of 230 rivers that criss-cross the country. Further downstream it becomes the Brahmaputra, one of three great rivers – the others are the Ganges and the Meghna – which together drain 175 million hectares of land. The outflow of water from Bangladesh is the third highest in the world after the Amazon and Congo systems. Although it is only the size of Greece, as much water flows through the country as through the whole of Europe. And with more than 140 million people, Bangladesh is among the most densely populated agricultural nations in the world. People must use every available piece of fertile land, including riverbanks – where they are at greater risk from flooding.
Now it's intense
Each year during the monsoon season, which runs from July to September, roughly a fifth of the country is flooded. People have become used to coping with the inundation. In fact they welcome this regular flooding as it deposits essential nutrients on the soil, allowing them to grow crops year after year. River erosion is also a natural process caused by the scouring action of the water as it flows downstream. Also, as floodwaters recede, the riverbank often breaks up and tens of metres of land can be washed downstream. At the same time deposits of silt can create new land, which is particularly vulnerable to erosion.
Although flooding and erosion are nothing new to the people of Bangladesh, the past 20 years have seen the incidences of both intensify. In 1987, 1988, 1995, 1998 and 2004, severe floods left vast swathes (more than two-thirds in 1988 and 1998) of the country under water. The 2004 floods destroyed 80 per cent of the country’s crops, killed 747 people and left 30 million homeless or stranded.
A good number of scientists and non-governmental organisations working with flood and river-erosion victims are certain that climate change is increasing the frequency of floods and the speed of erosion. Others agree that weather patterns are changing but are more circumspect about drawing a direct link between climate change and more erosion or floods. ‘We simply do not know if climate change is definitely increasing the erosion by our rivers. There are many complex factors involved,’ says Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), a Christian Aid partner organisation and the country’s leading environmental research group.
But, he adds, ‘what we can say is that patterns of rainfall and flooding have changed in the past few years'
Although flooding and erosion are nothing new to the people of Bangladesh, the past 20 years have seen the incidences of both intensify. In 1987, 1988, 1995, 1998 and 2004, severe floods left vast swathes (more than two-thirds in 1988 and 1998) of the country under water. The 2004 floods destroyed 80 per cent of the country’s crops, killed 747 people and left 30 million homeless or stranded.
A good number of scientists and non-governmental organisations working with flood and river-erosion victims are certain that climate change is increasing the frequency of floods and the speed of erosion. Others agree that weather patterns are changing but are more circumspect about drawing a direct link between climate change and more erosion or floods. ‘We simply do not know if climate change is definitely increasing the erosion by our rivers. There are many complex factors involved,’ says Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), a Christian Aid partner organisation and the country’s leading environmental research group.
But, he adds, ‘what we can say is that patterns of rainfall and flooding have changed in the past few years'
'Severe floods used to come once every 20 years, but now seem to occur around every five to seven years'
'This could very well be linked with climate change.’
While the debate continues over whether Bangladesh is already feeling the effects of climate change, the forecast of what is to come for the country is indisputably dire.
While the debate continues over whether Bangladesh is already feeling the effects of climate change, the forecast of what is to come for the country is indisputably dire.
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