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Category Archives: Sea level rise
Climate Refugee of Kutubdia Para Facing Crisis
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
Impacts of climate change mount coastal people’s hardship
Syful Islam
The impacts of climate change are mounting hardship of Bangladesh’s coastal people where calamities like cyclones, tidal surge, and river bank erosion nowadays hitting in increased number.
People living in these coastal areas are considered as the most vulnerable to the climate change impacts. Most of the people living there are poor and some are at the extreme poor segment.
Two major cyclones — Sidr and Aila — which hit Bangladesh coasts in 2007 and in 2009, had destroyed roads and embankments, washed away homes, lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. These extreme weather events which are considered as impacts of climate change have deepened the misery of coastal inhabitants.
Experts said agony of poor coastal people turned manifold as they are mainly dependent on natural resources for living and livelihoods. The calamities, when hit them, first damage the natural resources further weakening their strength.
With the impacts of climate change starting to be more visible day by day, scientists apprehend that a big portion of coastal areas of low-lying nations will be inundated because of sea level rise.
They said in Bangladesh a 10cm rise in sea level could inundate 2.0 per cent of arable lands by 2020 and 10 per cent lands by 2050 which may cause displacement of 15 million coastal residents.
Non-government organisations working in coastal districts estimate that nearly 5.0 million people living there are at high risk of either being displaced or experiencing extreme impacts of climate change in the near future.
Sea level rise
Sea level rise is a major concern for low lying nations including Bangladesh. Scientists blame manmade hazards for global warming which melts ice in the Himalayan and Antarctic. The incased volume of ice melting causes sea level rise which poses threat to existence of countries like Maldives and inundation of a big portion of Bangladesh territory.
The 2007 report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said a one-meter rise in sea levels may swamp 17 percent of Bangladeshi low lying areas and displace 20 million people by 2050.
A new scientific report released by the World Bank Group in June 2013 said among the South Asian nations Bangladesh will be most affected by an expected 2° Celsius temperature rise in the next decades. It said if temperature is up by 2.5 ° Celsius the flood areas in Bangladesh could increase by as much as 29 per cent.
The IPCC in its Fifth Assessment Report (released on September 27, 2013) projected that by 2100 the sea-level may rise by 28-98 cm, which is 50 per cent higher than the old projections of 18-59 cm when comparing the same emission level and time periods.
Livelihoods under severe threat
Hit by an increased number of disastrous events the lives and livelihoods of coastal people are under severe threat apart from loss of homes and lands. Especially, as saline water enters into the lands and ponds during cyclone and tidal surges, the lands lose their capacity to produce crops while sources of drinking water become polluted.
Due to excessive salinity in the lands, the farmers lose crops frequently which further weaken them financially alongside threatening food security. In most of the coastal districts farmers can produce rice once a year. When a farmer loses a crop once a year, he has no option but to strive with family members.
The other way of earning bread and butter for coastal people is fishing in the rivers and sea. But the increased numbers of cyclones and storms have strongly affected the profession as staying in the sea become highly risky for life while fishes are becoming unavailable day by day.
A study carried out by Campaign for Sustainable Rural Development (CSRL) found that in last 30 years the intensity and frequency of storms had increased by three times. During the 2007-2010 period Bangladesh has had 10 to 14 storms severe enough for a Signal No 3 warning.
Thirty years ago, just four or five such warnings were issued each year. This year the meteorological department also issued Signal No 3 warning for Bangladeshi river and sea ports in an increased number meaning that higher numbers of storms have formed this year compared to last year.
And when a Signal No 3 warning is issued, fishing trawlers in the sea are advised to return to the shore immediately meaning a loss of several thousands of taka in each trip.
Besides, the fishermen nowadays frequently talk about getting fewer numbers of fishes both in the sea and rivers. Many fishermen families starve both in off and peak seasons due to meagre earnings.
Lack of work triggers massive migration
The impacts of climate change are causing displacement of thousands of people from the coastal areas. The 1998 floods made 45 million people homeless while the cyclone Sidr displaced 650,000 in 2007, Aila 842,000 and Bijli 20,000 in 2009.
Failing to ensure livelihoods and losing living places, people from coastal districts are continuously migrating to nearest cities and towns as well as to the already overcrowded Dhaka. Estimations show that every year over half a million people pour into the capital majority of whom are believed to be climate migrants.
External migration is also taking place as many are forced to flee the country failing to repay the loans after losing everything to the river bank erosion and major cyclones. After cyclone Aila hit the area, around 50 per cent people of a village in Satkhira district left it, a handsome of them also migrated to neighbouring countries to secure a living.
In Southkhali union under Bagerhat district almost 30 per cent residents left the area for elsewhere after the cyclone Sidr struck it.
After reaching the cities these climate refugees start living in inhuman conditions in the slums in absence of civic facilities. These slum people suffer from various diseases and children living there suffer from malnutrition and lack of education.
They enter into the severely occupied job market but fail to ensure food for even twice a day. Many of them also start begging in the roadside, while some engage themselves in prostitution to earn foods and living.
Due to the increased number of migration, nowadays new makeshift rooms are being built in the slums everyday while some live in the street further raising public nuisance in the cities. These people, having no family planning measures, also cause baby boom in the already over-crowded urban areas.
http://greenbarta.com/index.php/climate-change/144-impacts-of-climate-change-mount-coastal-people’s-hardship.html
Weeping sea : Documentary on climate change
Weeping sea Duration: 21 minutes Language: Malayalam (Subtitled in English) Direction: K Rajendran Camera: K Rajendran, Rahul R Chandran, Muhammed Basheer Editing: Jayakrishnan
An investigation on
How does climate impact marine and fisheries sector?
How does it affect fishermen?
How does human intervention precipitate climate change impacts?
1. Depletion of Mussels.
Location: Elephant mussels hill, Thiruvanandhapuram.
Two varieties of mussels are found in Kerala;Brown mussels and green
mussels. This (September-December) is the season of mussels. Huge
depletion of mussels is being found this season. Depletion is being felt
during last 3 years. According to marine expert this is due to the climate
change.
2. Fishes disappearing
Location; Kovalam beach, Thiruvanandhapuram
Many varieties of fishes are disappearing in Kerala sea shore.. Kilimeen (Mesoprion) is the best example. According to Central Marine and Fisheries research institute, it is one of the best examples of climate change impact on fisheries. Kilimeen is known as the ideal fish for poor. Because of it’s less
cost and good taste. So it’s depletion is widely effected the poor who doesn’t have enough money to purchase fishes of high cost.
3 .How islanders are affected?
Location: Lakshadweep
How lonely islander is being affected? .Lakshadweep is the best example.
Three islands in Lakshadweep, Pitti(Fastest sinking Island) ,Kavarathi,
Agathy are telling their stories.
Here 3 climate change impacts;
A . Water level is rising marginally.
B. Depletion of fishes is being felt
C. Corals are vanishing.
4. Salty water
Location; Mavilakadavu village, Poovar
This is a new phenomenon in many of the villages in Kerala. Water in the well became alty although it is situating 5 or 6 Km away from sea. According to marine expert this is an excellent example of climate change.
5. Human intervention expedites climate change
Location: Puzhikara beach
Once, the beautiful beach Puzhikara, was known for the varieties of fishes. Now it has become a “beach of Eagles”. The beach has been turned as a dumping place of waste. Eco system in the seashore is being scuttled.6. Encroachments
Location; Vembanadu backwater, Alapuzha
This backwater is converted as a lake of Tourism and encroachment. All existing laws are being violated. Encroachments are being done by big corporates. Authorities act as mute spectators.
Kindly watch the film – Please click here
Climate change hits Ctg, Mongla ports hard
Wednesday, 02 October 2013
By Syful Islam
Impacts of climate change are frequently disrupting operations in the country’s two seaports causing huge financial losses, port officials have said.
Bangladesh is among the countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change where storms, cyclones, flash floods, poor rainfall, droughts, and river bank erosion have become increasingly visible nowadays.
Officials of the Chittagong port, in a recent report said that being located at the coast of the Bay of Bengal the port is exposed to cyclones and storm surges and highly vulnerable to tidal surges.
“Most of the disastrous events the port experienced are related to climate change and there has been phenomenal increase in their frequency, severity and unpredictability in the recent times.
“The most severe impacts have been visualised in terms of sea level rise leading to submergence of port areas,” Syed Farhad Uddin Ahmed, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) wrote to the Shipping Ministry recently.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a report in 2007 said a one-metre rise in sea levels may swamp 17 per cent of Bangladesh’s low-lying areas and displace 20 million people by 2050. The IPCC in its Fifth Assessment Report, released on September 27, projected that by 2100 the sea-level might rise by 28-98 centimetres.
The World Bank Group in June this year said among the South Asian nations Bangladesh will be most affected by an expected 2° Celsius temperature rise in the next decades.
It said if temperature is up by 2.5 ° Celsius, the flood areas in Bangladesh could increase by as much as 29 per cent.
Mr Ahmed said occasionally the port operational works suffer badly and sustains damages and losses.
He told the FE that the canals and low-lying areas of the port area are being submerged even in high tide disrupting activities.
Citing some examples Mr Ahmed said during the cyclone Mahasen, the activities in Chittagong port were halted for 9 hours. The port operations remained suspended for over three days during the cyclone of 1991.
Port operations were also disrupted during major cyclones like Sidr and Aila which stuck Bangladesh’s coasts in 2007 and 2009.
Director of Mongla Port Authority Hawlader Zakir Hossain told the FE the port’s advantage is that it is located some 130 kilometres from the seashore.
“But natural disaster often disrupts activities of the port in one way or another. The cyclones Sidr and Aila had halted the port operations as those hit the nearest area with fierce velocity,” he said.
Sources said the CPA in 1992 had formulated cyclone guidelines to help contain the effects of such disasters and keep the port operational immediately after any major cyclone strikes. The cyclone disaster preparedness and post cyclone rehabilitation plan, initiated by the port is a useful tool for disaster management.
The SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Secretariat is preparing a plan of action for disaster management which the CPA thinks will help establish a regional disaster management system to reduce risks.
Most of Bangladesh’s export-import activities take place through the country’s two seaports.
http://fe-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMTBfMDJfMTNfMV8yXzE4NTUwMg==
Bangladesh is getting smaller!
Bangladesh is a country recognized with is delta plain behavior. But nowadays, the country is losing its length. Within last 10 years, the southern part of this country faced river erosion several times.
Recently Australian journal of coastal conservation has been published an article named ‘Planning and Management Rates of shoreline change along the coast of Bangladesh’ by Dr. Md. Golam Sarwar.
He stated that, the sea shore of Bangladesh every year going to120 meter inwards, that means every year there happens a huge the land loss. The researcher at present works in Bangladesh Unnayan Porishad. He studied with satellite images from 1989 to 2009 and the study area was Teknaf, an upazila of Cox’s Bazar. The result of the research gives a result, the area lose 2.4 KM area within 20 years.
Climate change threatens Bangladesh’s MDG achievements – experts
Mon, 22 Jul 2013 04:33 PM
Syful Islam
DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Two years before the 2015 deadline, Bangladesh has achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations, but the impacts of climate change pose a threat to the country’s progress, experts say.
“The threat of climate change can diminish the hard-earned beneficial impacts of years of growth and development, not just for the people in impoverished settlements along coastal belts and river banks, but for the entire nation,” said Shamsul Alam, a member of Bangladesh’s Planning Commission.
Bangladesh has recorded impressive feats in lifting people out of poverty, ensuring more girls and boys attend school, and providing access to clean water, Alam said. Considerable progress has also been made in raising the number of children that survive beyond their fifth birthday, and the country has been recognised by the United Nations as on track to meet the goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds of its 1990 rate.
“There have been some improvements to address the country’s massive environmental challenges over the past decade as well,” Alam added.
But Ainun Nishat, an environmentalist and vice-chancellor of BRAC University in Dhaka, said the impacts of climate change were not considered when the MDG targets were set at the beginning of the century.
The issue came into focus after 2007 when a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that a sea-level rise of 1 metre would inundate nearly one fifth of Bangladesh’s coastal area and flood plain.
“The impacts of climate change will definitely hamper steps for achieving the MDGs (and) especially pose a threat to food security,” he said.
Apart from the risk of flooding, Nishat said climate change is causing variable rainfall. From 2007 to 2012 there was hardly any rain in Bangladesh’s northern districts. The recent experience in the capital is different, however.
“This year a full day’s heavy downpour (occurred) in Dhaka, causing huge waterlogging,” Nishat said.
CITY SLUMS SWELL
Climate change is also a factor in internal and external migration, with a negative impact on food security, nutrition and children’s education, areas where the MDGs are meant to bring improvements. It is also implicated in the spread of health-related problems like dengue fever.
Meanwhile, the government is struggling to keep up with the infrastructure needs of expanding cities.
Arif Sheikh, a rickshaw puller who lives in Dhaka’s Korail slum, said poor people living in the shanties are deprived of many civic amenities. “Children here hardly go to school or get medical services, thus (they) sufferer from diseases.”
Sheikh, who came to Dhaka from Barisal district in southern Bangladesh after losing his land to riverbank erosion, said finding work has become extremely competitive as the number of poor people moving to the city increases.
“People from coastal districts are pouring into the capital … as they are losing lands and houses to the river,” he said.
Day labourer Rahim Mia, who lives in Dhaka’s Malibagh area, said migrating to the capital had not ensured even a modest living for him or his family.
“Every morning, several hundred people gather here to be hired by contractors. But not necessarily everyone gets a job since the scope of work is limited compared to the number of jobseekers,” said the 35-year-old father of two young daughters and a son.
“Riverbank erosion and salinity has driven us to the city, but the government (pays) no attention to us.”
ACTION NEEDED
Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, a nongovernmental organisation working on sustainable development issues, agreed the effects of climate change have emerged as one of the main barriers to poverty reduction.
“Climate change is causing lower food production, and adding difficulties for ordinary people,” he said.
Rahman said there is no doubt that global warming will undermine some of the Millennium Development Goals.
“Extreme events like cyclone, storms, floods and droughts continue to pose a threat to (their achievement),” he said.
Adaptation by poor nations will not work unless industrialised countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, he argued. “If sea-level rise is too high, no infrastructural protection will save the low-lying countries,” he said.
BRAC University’s Nishat said Bangladesh’s leaders must act quickly to avert disaster.
“We have to take steps so that the impacts of climate change can’t cause a food crisis, destroy the ecosystem and hinder the development process,” he said.
Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com
http://www.trust.org/item/20130722163326-vjgux/?source=hptop
Pakistan breaks India’s record mangroves plantation
By Saleem Shaikh
Lahore Times
Published: June 24, 2013
KETI BUNDER, Sindh: “The Sindh Forest Department has set a Guinness World Record for planting a maximum number of mangroves saplings at Keti Bunder” on Saturday (June 22), informed the Additional Secretary Sindh Forest and Wildlife Department, Mr. Aijaz Ahmed Nizamani at a press conference held here, in Keti Bunder, a coastal town in Sindh.
He was accompanied by Mr. Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, Country Representative, IUCN Pakistan; Mr. Riaz Ahmed Waggan, Chief Conservator of Forests and Mr. Muhammad Umer Memon, Project Director Sindh Coastal Community Development Project (SCCDP). Two independent adjudicators for the Guinness World Records event, Mr. Rafi-ul-Haq and Dr. Shaukat Hayat Khan also joined them, along with Mr. Tahir Qureshi, Coastal Ecosystem Expert, IUCN Pakistan.
The announcement was made, shortly after 300 coastal community volunteers had planted 8,47,257 saplings, breaking an earlier record of 6,11,000 saplings planted by India in 2010. While congratulating the nation, he thanked the forest department employees, coastal community volunteers and the coastal experts for their tireless efforts in achieving this goal.
He also informed the media that the Asian Development Bank has announced Rs.5,000 as a special reward for each of the volunteer. ADB has funded a 5-year long Sindh Coastal Community Development Project in the area in partnership with the Sindh Forest Department. A special shield was awarded to Mr. Tahir Qureshi for his exceptional conservation work in the Indus Delta over the last few years.
While congratulating the efforts of the Sindh Forest Department, Mr. Mahmood Akhtar Cheema said that there have been competitions between Pakistan and Indian in sports but a competition in the field of environment is even healthier, as in the end it will only lead to healthy ecology in both the countries.
