Masud Sheikh from Koyra village of Khulna, whom I met first on May 27, 2009, two days after cyclone Aila hit the southwest coast, lost everything. He was looking for shelter, food, clothes for him and his family. A year later, I met him pulling a rickshaw at the Khulna Sonadanga Bus terminal.
“I came here a week after Aila. As you know, due to Aila, I lost everything- my home, my farm and even my livestock. I went to the ward members, chairman, NGOs, but did not get enough support. My brother-in-law lives in Sonadanga, he told me to come to Khulna. I am not educated, but I am the only earning member of my six member family. I kept my daughter with my wife in the village. She is going to school there. My son is with me and is going to school here. After school he works at a tea-stall near the slum where we live. My wife works in a biscuit factory. I’m pulling a rickshaw. My income is very poor, I hardly earn Tk300 to Tk350 per day. I don’t earn the same amount of money every day. If my wife’s job becomes permanent, we will settle here.”
This is how a disaster displaces a person and fragments a family. People have always moved from one place to another in search of a better livelihood and income. When migration happens by force, it is a matter of concern.
It has been projected that if the rise in temperatures and sea levels continue, one-third of Bangladesh, particularly, the southern coast will disappear in future. Although the rate of sea-level rise is rather slow and the long-term effects in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Delta are yet to be established, the loss of habitat, livelihoods and the number of people displaced are staggering.
The government has been responsive to tackle such extreme events through national policies. In 2005, it instituted the National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) and Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in 2008. It has also revised the Standing Order on Disaster Management, engaged with development partners and invested on local adaptation strategies.
In my recent book with Dr. Benjamin Etzold, Environment, Migration and Adaptation: Evidence and Politics of Climate Change in Bangladesh (published by AHDPH in Dhaka), we demonstrate that “environmentally-induced migration” should not be regarded by policy-makers and the public as a failure to adapt to climate change. Migration might rather be seen as a normal part of life in an interconnected world and as an adequate strategy to diversify livelihoods, respond to shocks, and better manage risks that stem from climate change. Without forgetting those “trapped populations” who cannot use mobility at all to enhance their life chances, we strongly urge and recommend more political support and social protection for migrants, relocated persons, displaced people, and refugees and their families. Cities are the main destination for most of the migrants, thus adding pressure to urban liveability. The situation is getting worse for big cities like Dhaka where almost all the economic activities of the country are located.
The straightforward political solutions are to improve the disaster management process through improving early warning systems, emergency aid, infrastructure projects such as flood and cyclone shelters. The long-term response to manage migration is to invest in projects that support people to maintain their livelihoods, develop new livelihood opportunities, and cope with cyclones and floods without having to flee or temporarily move. Migrants rarely want to move from their land, their place of belonging. Protecting them and preventing loss and damage from climate change is a way to keep them in their place.