Bangladesh faces up to climate change
10 September 2008
From paddy fields to fisheries
Friends
Nesarun and Rashida spend seven or eight hours each day waist-deep in water.
As the hot sun blazes down, they fish for shrimps and white fish in the
pools of water just outside the village of Katakhali, in Kesobpur, where they
were both born. Dragging their triangular nets across the surface of the
water, anticipation fills the air as they peer into the depths to spy their
catches.
Some days they get lucky, netting so much that they can feed their families and
then sell some on to their neighbours. On other days, they go home with nothing.
The typical lives of fishing folk, you may think, but the difference is that these women are not fishing in the river or the sea - they are wading in silty floodwater. Hectares upon hectares of agricultural land across southern Bangladesh have become completely waterlogged due to rises in the sea-level.
Around 10,000 people in the Kesobpur district have been affected by the flooding. The old boundaries which used to divide up different plots have been washed away and people feel a sense of loss about the vanished soil that used to belong to them.
However, in Katakhali resilient locals are trying to make the most of the situation. Land that used to produce rice for an entire village has become an informal fishery for up to nine months of the year. This provides the means for survival, but life is tough.
Rashida, who has a son and a daughter, says: "Ten years earlier from now, we
were very happy. In the daytime we ate our meals, at night we slept.
"We didn’t have any anxiety. But after these ten years, the water level is
going up and up. Now we are in hardship."
Relying on an income from fishing is not easy and like so many families in rural
Bangladesh, Rashida’s family now eats two meals per day, instead of three.
Cutting their nutritional intake by a third is already starting to take its
toll.
"We can only eat twice in a day instead of the normal three times. As a result
of that, we are being attacked by many diseases and we are getting weaker. So we
are unable to work hard," she says.
Nesarun, a 35-year-old grandmother, says that she regularly suffers from coughs,
colds and other respiratory diseases as a result of spending so much time in the
water.
"Even though I'm old, I am working for survival. If we cannot eat, then we
cannot survive," she sighs
Jamir Maral, aged 52, who was also born in the village, says he has not been
able to grow crops on his land for the past four years. "Everything is under
water now," he says.
Jamir, who has five children, initially tried to make a living from fishing. But
it proved impossible to generate enough money, and he now trades in milk. He
fishes for shrimps, crabs and fish to feed his family, but it’s back-breaking work.
"I have nine mouths to feed. It was easier before when I grew rice.
The money I'm making now is less, and rice prices are very high.
"There is not good quality fishing here. Fishing for six hours will not earn a
fortune – may be 25 Taka (30 cents) for a bag of shrimps and perhaps 5 Taka (6
cents) for a crab," he says.
Now, many young people are leaving Kesobpur to find work in Dhaka and elsewhere.
There are calls for the Government of Bangladesh to help pump the water away so
that people can start farming rice again. But the question remains: is that really practical?
And where
would the water go?
Some farmers with savings have been able to build a network of escarpments and
dykes around their land, creating small ponds and plots where they can
grow vegetables.
But not everyone has the means to do this.
And for those who can’t, there is no option but to keep on fishing for survival.
Links
- Bangladesh country profile
- How we fight poverty: Climate
- Degrees of separation: Poverty and climate change
