Climate Refugees: Bangladesh
We will focus on the climate refugees in Bangladesh. Bangladesh total land area is 147,570 Sq.km and the population is over 156million people.7 Bangladesh is called the land of rivers, there are more than 700 rivers. There are three main drinking water source which are the Padma, Meghna and Jamuna river. The climate change in Bangladesh are sea level rises, cyclones and floods. The Southern and coastal of Bangladesh are the most affected. Sea level rise is one of the major concerns because with one metre sea level rise it will submerge over a quarter of land. The sea level rise comes from the melting of the Himalayas mountain. Which lead salt into the sea causing contamination in Bangladesh’s drinking water.
When Bangladeshi drink salty water there are several health problems, such as cholera, diarrhea, kidney failure and skin diseases. About 4 million people and many species living around the world’s greatest mangrove forest, the Suburbans, is the most affected. 60% of the Suburban area is mostly a flat coastal land. Also, salty water damages crops, which affect their quality and quantity of productivity. Which there will be a like of food and water sources for Bangladesh people to get for their basic needs. The river lost the quality of the rivers due to man made changes of industrial pollution and for dumping household waste into the rivers.
Salty water are called salinity water. High level of salinity comes from intense storm with wind that blows seawater into the nearby land. During the monsoon season, there are less salt in the drinking water due to heavy rainfall. Cyclones occur between October to November and March to April annually. The continually sea level rises and the high level of salinity level are pushing Bangladeshis lives to a more vulnerable position than before. Sea level rises and salinity water causes drinking water and food security. The Bangladesh’s government put little effort to help restore Bangladesh back to normality, to prevent people from relocating due to the needs of fresh drinking and usable water. The government established storage tank for clean drinking water. There’s pro and con to the solution, the pro is that there is clean drinking water available. The con is that it is not enough for the whole population to use and it’s far from others who can’t travel far. Bangladesh’s climate refugees have been relocating to up north which is to Dhaka, India, urban areas and live in slums.“Small ponds, canals, wells and tube wells are now filled by salty sea water, which makes all the water sources unusable.”
While The Bangladesh’s government are trying to get other wealthy nations to accept their climate refugees, the government are coming up with solution for salinity water. Desalination is a method that will use to remove salt and other minerals from seawater to produce potable water. There are pro and con to the solution. Some of the pro is that the desalination works best along coastline, it will reduce dependency of water from the ground. Some of the cons is that desalination is not Eco-friendly solution; it requires a huge amount of energy, and the energy depends on oil, coal, gas or non-renewable sources. Bangladesh do not have the proper investment for desalination, but Bangladesh are able to invest in a new model by Public Private Partnership or Build, Operate and Transfer. These two models are made from renewable sources of energy, such as solar, air or tidal power which would minimize the cost and still perform a sustainable work. Bangladesh"Desalination process could be one of the alternatives for Bangladesh to fight against present and future water crisis."
Bangladesh should continue on to find alternative solutions to the water crisis, to produce fresh water so that people will not have to relocate if they are not affected by the sea level rises yet. It will help bring relief to the vulnerable communities. This is one way how Bangladeshi can adapt to climate change because wealthy countries are reluctant to accept climate refugees."They said that water has become the most precious commodity of their daily life."
7.Asiful Basar,“Water Security in Coastal Region of Bangladesh: Would Desalination be a Solution to the Vulnerable Communities of the Sundarbans?” Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology 9, (2012): 31-39.
