The second in a series of stories on Bangladesh and climate migration.

GABURA, Bangladesh – The dam burst before dawn.

The men of the village knew it could happen. All day and all night they trudged by the hundreds, shirtless and shoeless, up a slippery hill, hauling baskets of mud on their heads. It was Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of daylong fasts. But the men had a only few hours to try to strengthen the mushy barrier that protected their homes from the dangerously rising tide. Together, in between grueling shifts, they broke fast and prayed for the mud to hold.

When the dam finally collapsed, there was nothing to do but run.

"You cannot believe the strength of the water when it broke. I've never seen the strength of the water like this," recalled Shaidullah, 35, sitting in the boat he paddled to safety that September night. "We were panicking."

That night, the embankment was breached in eight places along the Kholpetua River and other waterways that branch out like a network of arteries from the Bay of Bengal. No one was killed, but local officials said more than 35,000 people were marooned. About 6,000 were left homeless.

Water risks are a part of life in this low-lying country dominated by the reaches of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. But scientists and environmental activists said the September flood, which happened during a lunar high tide, was deeply unusual for the time of year.

Even more worrisome, they say, is that climate change is making the unusual more routine. Locals say the result is a massive upheaval of traditional village life.

For many years, floods have been bringing saline water further inland, destroying the rice fields that once sustained the villages. Shrimp farms, many built with World Bank investment, have rapidly replaced the rice paddies.

But residents say the shrimp farms employ a fraction of the people needed to harvest rice. At the same time, a cheap form of food, rice, is being replaced with a pricey one. The Bangladesh government earns more than $400 million annually in shrimp exports, but few Bengalis can afford to eat it themselves.

To make matters even worse, devastating storms like the one that devoured the region in September once were one-in-20-year events. Scientists calculate that floods of that magnitude now happen almost once every five years.

Time to sow, time to reap, time to leave for the cities

Now villagers in Gabura and parts of flood-prone southwest Bangladesh say it might finally be time to leave for good. Dozens of families interviewed along the coast said they have lived the close-knit village life for generations, and they're familiar with the rhythm of temporarily moving along when things get bad. The difference now, they say, is that brothers, husbands and uncles are leaving for the cities in greater numbers than ever before – and this time, they're not coming home.

"Not only do a lot of people want to leave, a lot of people have left," said Masudualam, the former district chief in Gabura.

Mohon Mondal, who runs an environmental group in the region and educates villagers about climate change, said the growing number of migrations means that woman and children are left alone for long periods – and sometimes abandoned altogether – when men go off to the cities for work. Village elders, too, are increasingly left to grow old without their children around them.

4 Comments

1. 1. eco-steve 05:25 PM 3/9/09

   The rich countries may be planning to fight agaist climate change, but these climate refugees need urgent United Nations attention now. It is the fault of the CO2 emitteurs if climate is changing. We must take care of those that are affected by our negligence.

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2. 2. DesignBangladesh 01:03 AM 5/20/09

   Hi from Bangladesh. We want to start a Save the River within 3 months from Bangladesh. We are planning to spread it in our SAARC region. Please let us know can you help us in any matter! Or can we work together to save the river program?
   Best regards,
   
   Mahmudul Karim Rubel
   CEO
   Design Bangladesh
   dbemailbox@yahoo.com
   www.DesignBangladesh.com
   

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3. 3. chaamjamal 11:47 AM 7/17/10

   increasing salinity in bd rivers is caused by dams up river in india, not by rising sea levels. cyclones and floods are and have always been regular features of the weather pattern in bd. they are not caused by climate change. in any case the theory that climate change has caused increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather has been discredited and these claims have now been withdrawn by the ipcc. it is disgraceful to see scientific american abandon science so easily and stoop so low to sell the climate change agenda. i used to look up to this magazine.

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4. 4. joelkarmaker 04:30 AM 9/9/10

   Nice article of lisa, its show the real picture of Bangladesh, I am from Bangladesh, so thank you vry much. How can I contact with her on behalf of a science organization of my Country? Could you please infor me?
   
   Theodore Joel Karmaker
   COSMIC CULTURE
   www.cosmicculture.org
   info@cosmicculture.org
   +88-019-14434380

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