Tag Archives: Climate refugee

Climate Refugee of Kutubdia Para Facing Crisis

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published on:30/11/2013

Loss of life, land and poverties is rising very quickly at Cox’s Bazar district due to Climate changes. More than One lakh fifty thousand people of Cox’s Bazar have already been lost their home, home land, properties in the district during the last one hundred years. All the uprooted and landless people have already been migrated from their native village forever earlier. Those climate changes refugees have been taken shelter in different areas of the district and developed locality. More than forty thousand people of Kutubdia Island have already been taken shelter and build slams at Cox’s bazaar town. This slams is named `Kutubdia Para’ is situated on west side of Cox’s Bazar Air port.
Another ten thousand people of Kutubdia Island have already been taken shelter and build locality at Teknaf upazila named `Kutubdia para’ under hoykong union’. This migrant people facing several number of Socio economic crisis.see details

Erosion leaves Kutubdia Island

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published on:26/11/2013
The once-treasured lighthouse on Kutubdia island is sinking due to rising sea levels and unabated erosion that has caused half the island to disappear in a matter of decades.

The once 60 sq km island has been reduced to a mere 25 sq km since the 1960’s, says Coast Trust executive director Rezaul Karim Chowdhury. Islanders are losing their centuries old homesteads, while rising population density—as the island’s more than 100,000 inhabitants are forced to occupy less and less land—gives rise to social and economic unrest.

SAARC Meteorological Research Centre (SMRC) also records the sea levels rising along the coast of Bangladesh.

An SMRC study pointed out that the sea level at Hiron Point in the Sundarbans, at the island of Char Chhenga and at Cox’s Bazaar are registering significantly increased tidal heights.

SMRC’s senior research officer Mizanur Rahman told bdnews24.com that with higher seas, salinity and coastal erosion was also increasing.

Farming, one of the two main livelihoods on the island—the other being fishing—is gradually being abandoned due to shrinking arable land, while people are made homeless refugees.see details

Cascade of Climate refugee in Jamalpur

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Published on:11/11/2013

Erosion by the Jamuna River has taken a serious turn at four villages in Chinaduli union of Islampur upazila. Recently, the Jamuna river erosion threatened thousands of families at Islampur upazila in Jmalpur district. In the last month, the river erosion marked severe damage to lives and livelihoods while leaving people in danger. The badly affected unions are Kulkandi and Pathorshi. Pathorshi union has already been vanished to the river while Kulkandi is on the way to demolish.
Riverbank erosion is a perennial problem in Bangladesh. Large monsoon flow transporting extreme amounts of sediment from the Himalayan Mountains to the sea flow through the delta of Bangladesh formed by the same soils. These fine soils have no resistance to the flowing water and are easily transported and deposited. As a consequence the large rivers have quite an unpredictable behavior with the permanent risk of riverbank erosion. Riverbank erosion can exceed one kilometer per year and poses a substantial risk to floodplain dwellers. The loss of land is accompanied by a loss of infrastructure such as flood embankments, schools, hospitals, cultural and religious monuments and, of course, agricultural lands and assets.
According to BWDB It has been estimated that tens of thousands of people are displaced annually by river erosion in Bangladesh, possibly up to 100,000. From the 1970s to early the 1990s, the extent of mean annual erosion was about 3,300 hectares along both banks of the Jamuna River. During the last decade erosion along the river seems to have diminished slightly ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 hectare per year.see details

Climate refugee: Bhola would be lost within the 40 years

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Published on: 18/11/2013

Bhola, the island district of Bangladesh, was of 6400 skm in area in 1960s. 3000
skm of it have been inundated in the last 40 years only. The renowned growth centres like Old Daulat Khan, Mirja Kalu, Molong Chora, Swarajganj, Choumuhony, Taju Miar Hat etc are totally submerged to the sea. Now also any one of the localities is being eroded. If this rate of erosion continues entire Bhola would be lost within the next 40 years.

Magnus Krantz coduct a field based research on `COASTAL EROSION ON THE ISLAND OF BHOLA, BANGLADESH ‘The results show that the erosion has been big, 68.4 meters/year or 4.3 km2 over 5 years. The accretion has been 20.9 km2 during the same period. The erosion occurs on the East Side of the Island of Bhola, and the accretion on the West Side and up in the north. This phenomenon depends on the current conditions around the island of Bhola. People living by the embankment have had to move between 2 to 4 times during a period of 20 to 30 years due to the erosion. Many of these people have been landless, and are now living illegal by the embankment in serfdom. some 500,000 people move to the capital, Dhaka, from coastal Island bhola.

In this regards environmental based rights group Demand for the rights of environmental refugee. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, does not recognise climate or environment refugees, as they are not listed under the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention. Now some experts suggest the Convention should be amended to allow for environmental displacement.see details