Page 10 - Respond 2018 Magazine

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What will become of

Bangladesh’s climate migrants?

Millions of people on the Bengali coast are vulnerable to rising sea levels and may have
to leave their homes. Meet the forerunners of a looming existential crisis for the south
Asian country

By Megan Darby

When Cyclone Aila hit the
coast of Bangladesh in May
2009, water swelled over
embankments along the
Kholpetua river.

The home Sirajul Islam
(pictured) shared with his wife
and four children in Kolbari
village was flooded, along
with the single acre he used
to raise shrimp.

They left for Shyamnagar town, 15km away, where for four
months he made 300-400 taka a day ($4-5) driving a rented
motorbike.

When the floodwater subsided, his field was too salty for
shrimp. Village buildings were flattened and there was no
fresh water to drink. So in 2011, the family went to seek their
fortune in the capital Dhaka.

“The cyclone had broken my economical backbone by
destroying everything,” says Islam. “If there had not been
such a big cyclone, I would not have moved to Dhaka.”

Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina has told the UN
that a one-metre rise in sea level – a plausible scenario this
century – would submerge a fifth of the country and turn 30 Dislocation: Sirajul Islam and his family left home for five years after
million people into “climate migrants”.
Cyclone Aila destroyed his coastal livelihood
Islam shows off a set of deer antlers, a trophy from hunting
in the Sundarbans, across the river. Most of the household
income is from selling fish, crab and honey gathered in Over the past two decades, Bangladesh’s rural population
the mangroves – supplemented from his eldest daughter’s has been pouring into its cities. A 2014 slum census found
wages at a garment factory in Chittagong. the number of people living on the margins of cities had
doubled to 2.2 million since 1997. Meanwhile, the population
If there were to be another cyclone, Islam says “I would fight” in southwestern coastal regions is stagnating.
to stay. It is not likely to get any easier, though. Sea levels are
set to rise, compounding the problem of salt intrusion into A smaller, but significant, number of displaced people
groundwater. Tropical cyclones are expected to get more cross borders, which is where it becomes a matter of at
intense and destructive with global warming. In combination, least regional, if not international concern. Up to 20 million
they raise the risk of another devastating storm surge. Bangladeshis are said to be living illegally in neighbouring