ZCZC
BSS-11
SEA-LEVEL-ISLANDERS
Sea level rise hits Bangladesh islanders hard
By Rafiqul Islam, back from Hatiya, Manpura
DHAKA, Feb 22, 2019 (BSS) – It came as a major setback with nightmarish
experience to sexagenarian Mosharraf Hossaion when he faced with the loss of
homestead land, housing structure and arable land a few years back due to
erosion of the mighty Meghna River. Like many affected people, loss of
homestead forced Mosharraf to move to a new place without any option and put
him in a disastrous situation.
His present state of life is filled with despair and uncertainty as he
uttered “Once I had a happy family at Vendar Village of Sukh Char Union
Parishad in Hatiya upazila of Noakhali district. But, riverbank erosion
grabbed our home and all the belongings as Hatiya is located at the mouth of
the Meghna River in the Bay of Bengal”.
The force of nature– river erosion– compelled Mosharraf to leave
everything behind including homestead land, housing structure, crops, cattle,
trees and household utensils as his family shifted to Aladia village of Burir
Char Union of the same upazila and took shelter on an embankment near the
sea.
“Not only Vendar Village, two other villages went under seawater compelled
many people like us to be displaced,” Mosharraf said, adding their sufferings
have increased manifold due to extreme weather events like tidal surge and
cyclone every year since they live in very close to the sea.
Likewise, Nizam Maji also faced such a precarious condition as he was also
displaced losing his homestead to seawater. He said displacement makes their
lives miserable as they not only lost their house and belongings, but also
lost their family roots after displacement, putting them in an uncertain
future.
Internally displacement is a common phenomenon in Hatiya as a vast area of
the island is being devoured by the riverbank erosion accelerated by sea
level rise.
According to officials at Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB),
several hundreds of acres of arable land, many houses, markets, mosques,
educational institutions, roads, cyclone shelters, and 14 kilometres of
embankments of the island went under seawater in the last couple of years.
Erosion is also continuing to take place in many points of the Hatiya
Island, putting many islanders at the risk of displacement.
Nizam Maji said after losing agricultural land and houses to the erosion,
many families of Karingchar, Boyarchar and Nolerchar of the island left their
areas and have taken refuge in cyclone shelters.
A 2016 Brac report says about 27 million people are predicted to be at risk
of sea level rise in Bangladesh by 2050, while two-thirds of the country are
less than five metres above sea level.
The affected people are confronting such perilous situations without any
adequate institutional and structural supports and are devising their own
formulated strategies to cope with the conditions. They are out to make
efforts both physically and socially to survive with the situations by sea
erosions.
RISING SEA LEVEL
The impacts of sea level rise on coastal regions are sudden and episodic
hazards, indicating that global sea level rise will be a major challenge with
severe implications on human civilisations.
Sea level is on the rise along the Bangladesh coast like other parts of the
world. Official data shows sea level rise was observed at 5.73 mm per year at
Char Changa station in Hatiya while Hiron point in the Sundarbans at 3.38 mm
per year. The coastal areas along Patuakhali and Bhola districts and Hatiya
Island are very high vulnerable due to sea level rise while the coastal areas
along the Sundarbans and Barguna are high vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the coastal communities and islanders in Bangladesh have been
realising that sea level is increasing here affecting their lives and
livelihoods as recurrent extreme climate events hit them every year.
Dewan Hossain, a fisherman of Hatiya, said once seawater came near to the
embankment when any cautionary signal hoisted ahead of cyclone, but now
seawater reaches embankment of the island even during a normal tide,
indicating that water level in the sea increases.
“Seawater was far away from our island in the past, but now I feel the sea
is coming near us. One third land of our island went under seawater in the
last 20-25 years,” observes Abdul Khaleque (45), a resident of Manpura Island
in Bhola.
Now, he said, seawater enters the middle part of Manpura Island through
canals affecting a vast tract of croplands. “Due to the sea level rise,
salinity intrusion is damaging our croplands, putting our lives and
livelihood in trouble,” Khaleque fears.
ADAPTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
According to a new study of the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI), sea level rise will push nearly 140,000 coastal people to
migrate to other locations within their district while about 60,000 will move
to alternate districts.
With the rise of climate migrants, the Forest Department is distributing
its fallow land surfaced outside the embankments of the islands to the
landless, poor and displaced people on lease basis for 10 years.
The land is being distributed under the Integrating Community-based
Adaptation into Afforestation and Reforestation Programme, jointly initiated
by the Forest Department and the United Nation Development Program (UNDP).
Divisional forest officer Towhidul Islam said there are huge fallow lands
of the forest department in the islands, which are at the jaw of encroachment
by local musclemen.
If the land is leased to the vulnerable families, he said, it could be
protected from encroachment as well as the poor families would be able to
address their dire situation.
A total of 9 hectares of fallow land has so far distributed among 45 poor
families in Hatiya upazila whereas 45 ponds were established on the land and
each family got one pond to farm fish. Under the programme, fruit-bearing and
timber tree saplings were distributed among the families to plant on their
land. For creating livelihood options, they were also trained up on how to
rear duck and cultivate vegetables on the banks of their ponds.
“I got a pond and a piece of land under the programme for 10 years. Now I
am farming fish on the pond and cultivating vegetable on my land, and have
started reaping benefits,” said Ferdousi living in Tanbazar area of Hatiya.
Ferdousi said she has already sold fish worth Taka 10,000 from her pond and
hoped that she would be able to sell fish worth Taka one lakh within next
three or four months.
Towhidul said the Forest Department allows the islanders to utilise its
land for 10 years on lease and it is expected that the lease will be renewed
based on the success of the programme.
The affected people are being denied safe water, sanitation and other basic
needs that underscore the importance of taking up national level strategies
to cope with the disasters being caused by the forces of nature.
BSS/SPL/MRI/KU/1514 hrs