{"id":20024047,"date":"2018-03-06T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=24047"},"modified":"2021-01-04T23:34:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T18:04:54","slug":"24047","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/24047\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping heads above rising sea, barely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laila Khatun was carrying an armful of mud from the river. \u201cCome, I\u2019ll show you,\u201d she said when asked why. The large hut where she lived with her joint family was next door.<\/p>\n

There was a mound of mud next to the hut, to which she added her armful, straightened up, and said, \u201cWe have to get enough mud so that our husbands can make a high platform. Then they\u2019re going to shift our hut to the top of the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their hut was now on top of a bund, at least 10 feet above the Shela river which met the Bay of Bengal in just another kilometre or so. Why did they have to raise their hut higher?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know what happens at high tide,\u201d 20-year-old Laila said scornfully. \u201cThe water comes in, everything at home gets spoilt. This year, it has become impossible to live in this house. For hours, we have to sit on our beds and wait for the water to go down. We can\u2019t do any cooking. All the fuelwood gets damp even if we keep it away from the water. And it will get far worse during the monsoons. We have to raise our home before the rains arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing under the already-hot February sun and watching the quiet noonday river at low tide, it was not easy to imagine tides rising so high regularly. \u201cIf you want to see how far the water rises, go taste the water in the pond behind,\u201d said Laila\u2019s sister-in-law Rumi Khatun.<\/p>\n

It was salty sea water.<\/p>\n

So, what do they do for drinking water? \u201cThere\u2019s one pond in our village, Joymonigola, where the water is not so bad,\u201d Rumi said. \u201cAll of us use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the southern end of the Sundarbans near the port of Mongla in Bangladesh, Joymonigola is known as a village under imminent threat of inundation due to sea level rise, caused by climate change. But the fate of hundreds of other villages that ring the Sundarbans \u2013 the world\u2019s largest mangrove forest straddling Bangladesh and India \u2013 is hardly better.<\/p>\n

See: Rising sea swamps island along Bengal coast<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a time when the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta in Bengal was known for the deep green of paddy fields stretching to the horizon. Now, at the toe end of the delta in Bangladesh, prawn and crab farms stretch to the horizon. The water and the soil have turned too salty for even salt-tolerant paddy varieties, and this form of aquaculture is the only form of livelihood possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Prawn and crab farms stretch to the horizon around the Sundarbans in southern Bangladesh [image by: Joydeep Gupta]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Keeping solar panels dry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next door to Laila Khatun\u2019s house, Kishore Mandal is smoothing out the top of the four-foot-high platform he has built for the same purpose. \u201cThis is good sticky mud,\u201d he says, when asked if the platform will withstand the water that may seep in during high tides. \u201cI\u2019m hoping it won\u2019t crumble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can we do if it does crumble?\u201d his wife Tripti asks as she shores up the side of the platform with more mud. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the money to build a pucca (brick and mortar) house. All we\u2019re trying to do is to keep our belongings above water. Last year, all the schoolbooks of my son were ruined by salt water when a high tide came in the middle of the night. If we don\u2019t raise our hut this year, even the solar panel on our roof may be drowned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kishore spent BDT 32,000 (USD 385) to buy the solar panel, fittings, wires, and four bulbs at Bagerhat two years back. \u201cIt is very important,\u201d he says. \u201cThanks to the light, our son can study at night. Many of the homes in our village have solar lights now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Kishore a farmer? \u201cI was,\u201d he replies. \u201cBut now nothing grows on this soil \u2013 no paddy, no vegetables, nothing. The soil is too salty; the water available for irrigation is also too salty. So, like everyone else here, I have moved to prawn and crab farming.\u201d<\/p>\n

How long has this been going on? \u201cIt started getting bad about 20 years back,\u201d says Kishore. \u201cAround the same time, some people in the village started farming prawns. They made a lot of money, so most of us started farming prawns as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, many of us used to farm both paddy and prawns. But for the last ten years or so, the paddy doesn\u2019t grow. It got worse after Cyclone Aila (May 2009). So now we are all farming prawns. But it\u2019s difficult. Prawns catch viruses very easily, and all of them can die by the time you go to the market and get the medicine. All the money you have put in can get wiped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen somebody said crabs are hardier than prawns and fetch a better price. So, for the last few years, we have started farming crabs also. But they are just as prone to virus attacks. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019ll do if the crabs fail us.\u201d<\/p>\n

See: Migration always good? There’s no straight answer<\/a><\/p>\n

Tripti says in an undertone, \u201cWe can go to India.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to leave our ancestral home,\u201d answers Kishore. \u201cMy grandparents stayed back when the country was divided (in 1947). But now we may be forced to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

With land too ruined by the rising sea, migration \u2013 no matter how difficult \u2013 seems the only way out for these families already living on the brink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Villagers around the Sundarbans in Bangladesh have become totally dependent on prawn and crab farming as the water and soil have turned too salty for anything else<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20000114,"featured_media":20024048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[40027751,519,589],"hashtags":[],"country":[20000116,20000111],"class_list":["post-20024047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-aquaculture","tag-climate-impacts","tag-sea-level-rise","country-bangladesh","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping heads above rising sea, barely | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Villagers around the Sundarbans in Bangladesh have become totally dependent on prawn and crab farming as the water and soil have turned too salty for anything else\" \/>\n<meta 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