Often derided as a basket case, Bangladesh might just have a thing or two to show the world about tackling climate change.
From the port of Sadarghat, the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka unfolds itself in an inclement palette of greys and browns. The Buriganga River, stretching out in each direction like a puddle of mercury, is dotted with hundreds of river craft, some dredging trash from the riverbed, others weighed down with passengers and piles of vegetables.
Moored nearby, bleeding rust, sits the country’s fleet of ‘rockets’—colonial-era paddle steamers fitted with belching diesel engines that ply Bangladesh’s extensive network of waterways. The road running along the riverbank, the old Buckman Bund of the British colonial era, is today a bottlenecked mass of overladen trucks and tinkling rickshaws.
A magnet for rural migrants, low-lying Dhaka—already one of the most densely populated megacities on earth—is likely to come under increasing strain as the country comes face-to-face with the effects of global climate change. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says Bangladesh is likely to face cyclones, drought and flood events of increasing frequency and intensity as global warming sets in. In its 2005 report, the IPCC also estimated that a one metre rise in sea-levels could put 17 percent of the country underwater and cut its food production by 30 percent by 2050. Much of Dhaka, which lies in a flood plain protected only by giant embankments along the Buriganga could be engulfed by even a ‘slight rise’ in sea level, according to another report by UN Habitat. It described the megacity—largely unplanned and lacking basic infrastructure—as a ‘recipe for disaster.’
In May last year, Cyclone Aila lashed the southern part of the country, breaching giant embankments and flooding large tracts of low-lying farmland with salt water. Of the 900,000 families affected by the storm, about 100,000 people are still living in makeshift camps on top of the flood embankments—the only place beyond the reach of the floodwaters. Luigi Peter Ragno, a project manager at the International Organisation for Migration who is working with communities affected by Aila, says an expected spike in extreme weather events due to global warming will likely accelerate the age-old flow of rural poor to the cities.
‘Looking at the future, you can see that environmental degradation can have a cascade effect into the cities and the urban areas,’ he says. ‘Everybody will be affected.’
Photo Credit: Uniphoto Press
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Prof. Josephine Ngaira
Good, the article clearly spells out the main causes of degradation of Dhaka as population pressure exerted both on water and road networks and dense settlements on low lying areas. I want to point out that the people of Bangladesh should not get desparate after identifying contributing factors to the vulnerability of Dhaka to the effects of climate change. Some solutions to deal with and avoid the IPCC 2005 projected adverse effects could be drawn from the people who are likely to be affected themselves, community based adaptation. The polluted Buriganga river can be cleaned, could borrow a leaf from Kenya’s Minister for Environment- John Michuki who cleaned The murky Nairobi river to a clean flowing river within 6months. The Inernational Community in collaboration with the govt of Bangladesh should resettle those 1ooo,000 to upper ground even if it means settling them in Africaor elsewhere safe. Our concern now is the welfare of the poor in society. The highlight in the paper is good, keep it up.
Faisal Islam
Thanks for this timely article highlighting Bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change as well as its achievements in terms of preparing to deal with the challenges head on.
There is a factual mistake in the article that I thought I should point out. It not the case that “Dhaka is free from cars running on petrol or diesel (the use of compressed natural gas is mandated by law).” Most private and public transports (cars, pick-ups, buses etc.) have been converted to run on CNG because CNG costs 60-70% less to cover the same distance. However, there are petrol or diesel run cars and most inter-district trucks still run on diesel because of not having adequate access to CNG stations and due to technical concerns over converted engines requiring more maintenance in the long run.