When talking about climate change and global warming, rising sea levels are one of the consequences that come to our minds. Even the movies that related to climate change and its impact, which were released in the past 20 years, also expressed rising sea levels and floods due to the melting of glaciers as one of the most devastating impacts of global warming. But as you might know, it is no longer a movie clip for people living in the coastal region of Bangladesh. So that is what I am going to address in this blog post. Where will Bangladesh end up if the sea levels continue to rise?
Bangladesh is a country belonging to the south Asian region which is bordered by several Indian states and Myanmar. The southern region of Bangladesh opens into the Bay of Bangla. When discussing the impacts of rising sea levels, this southern part of Bangladesh which is bordered by the Indian Ocean is the most vulnerable. This region known as Ganges Delta (Sundarbans Delta/Bengal Delta) is the world’s largest river delta and these rivers empty into the bay of Bangla.
This Ganges Delta is home to over 10 million people, who are at direct risk from global warming, climate change, and extreme weather events. These people are more vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and climate change than anyone else. Before going deep into this discussion, I would give you a simple example to explain how the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels affect the lives of people living in this region. In some of the villages, rainwater is the only source of water that is safe to drink because the groundwater is nearly as salty as the ocean. Therefore, finding a sustainable source of fresh water has become a massive challenge for people, and because of that apart from all the climate impacts, the water they drink started to affect their health of people.
According to scientific predictions, by the end of this 21st century, sea levels are expected to rise along the Bangladesh coastline by up to 1.5m. Making things even worse, these rising sea levels come with extreme storms and unusually high tides regularly. Therefore, the only option left for the people living in these climate-vulnerable regions is to either change their way of life to adapt to these changes or seek homes somewhere else.
But as we all know both of those options are not so easy to implement. Therefore, the current solution they are applying to save their homelands is re-routing water using earth walls to create artificial islands. This procedure is also known as a Dutch initiative. Still, saltwater flooding has become an annual threat for these people, where over 100,000 people migrate from these areas each year. Apart from their houses, saltwater flooding also affects their agricultural lands. While some farmers still trying to use saltwater to grow rice, others started to adapt to the changes and use their traditional paddy fields as shrimp farms.
But according to estimations, one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by rising sea levels, by 2050. That means nearly 18 million people may have to relocate due to this ongoing threat. That is not all because these estimations show that Bangladesh probably lose 11% of its land in the coastal region by 2050. Also, as mentioned above, the increasing frequency of severe tropical storms will continue to cause both losses of human lives and property damage. The migration to cities due to this threat has also started to become an issue because most of those arriving in urban areas like Dhaka end up in the urban slums around the periphery of the city, with rudimentary housing conditions, very high population density, and poor sanitation.
So, if you are from Bangladesh, please take a moment and share your experience with rising sea levels in your home country in the comments below.
