Milk trader Faruk wishes that the monsoon in their area was eternal because when there is water everywhere he makes much more profit than when it is dry.
The richest and the poorest alike, residents of a shoal named Char Ashariya Daho on Padma River in Godagari upazila of Rajshahi district have to walk at least 6km for two and a half hours to reach the nearest human settlement.
That journey to the nearest human settlement is interrupted at least twice in the middle by two water bodies which have to be crossed on boats.
That is the story of the dry season. However, during monsoon that lasts about two months, things are much easier for these people as everything goes under water; and therefore, reaching the nearest settlement becomes a simple half an hour journey by boat.
During dry seasons, 19-year-old Faruk Hossain begins his day at 8am by milking cattle – mainly cows and buffaloes – owned by other people.
The land of Char Ashariya Daho is not fertile enough for any crop to grow extensively. So, the inhabitants of the shoal depend on raising cattle and selling the milk for a living.
Faruk is one of those who do not have cattle of their own but still earn a living by milking other people’s cattle and carrying and selling the milk at the nearest town at a nominal profit.
The 6km-journey to the nearest settlement called Bidirpur from Ashariya Daho is not too big a distance. However, because there is nothing resembling a road out of Ashariya Daho, people – starting from the oldest to the youngest – have to walk this distance.
Faruk has a container that can hold up to 30 litres of milk. When that container is full every morning, he sets out for the tediously long journey on foot with a 30kg load on his head. That is what Faruk does virtually every day.
The contract between Faruk and cattle-owners goes like this: for each litre of milk Faruk pays the owners Tk20. At Bidirpur, the milk sells for Tk30 per litre.
On the way, he needs to spend Tk40 for crossing the two rivers by boat – Tk20 for the up journey and Tk20 when he returns. Moreover, carrying a 30-kilogram load over a 6km distance is not an easy task; the effort drains a lot of energy. So, Faruk spends another Tk20 for having a good meal. In total, he spends around Tk60 out of the Tk300 he earns by selling the milk at Bidirpur.
But this expenditure comes down to only about Tk20 during monsoon. The journey from Char Ashariya Daho and Bidirpur can be covered by boat at Tk10 up and Tk10 down because it is once continuous stretch of water.
As he is carrying the load by boat the entire distance, the effort is not much and Faruk can save the money he spends for a meal during dry seasons.
If the milk can be carried to the Rajshahi city some 40km away, it sells for Tk50 per litre. But that would also mean another Tk20-Tk40 in transport cost.
However, because communication is easier during monsoon, some of Faruk’s fellow milk-carriers lose their jobs as many cattle-owners carry the milk to Bidirpur on their own.
“It is really hard for us to carry the milk to the selling point during the dry season. In fact, we have to pay for this by selling the milk at a lower price. If there was a road on which vehicles could ply, we would have been able to transport much more milk because time will be saved,” said Shahinur Alam, a cattle-owner at Char Ashariya Daho.
The shoal was created after India built the Farrakka Barrage in the upstream on the river Ganges – parts of which is known as Padma in Bangladesh. After the barrage came into effect, Padma started drying up shoals like the Char Ashariya Daho started popping up.
Golam Mostafa , chairman of the local union parishad, told the Dhaka Tribune that the village produces around 3,000 liters of milk every day. But because of the poor communication during the dry season, they have not been able to make the profit they could have.
The 40-year-old UP chairman said: “The situation has been worsening every year as the river [Padma] has been shrinking and bringing out more land to cover on foot.”
According to hydrology expert Ainun Nishat, cultivating crops is a not an option for the inhabitants of these shoals because the Padma River and its tributaries have been drying up.
Glam Miostafa also said that in recent years, many milk producers have given up their profession because they have not been able to cover up the cost. Many of them are now working as day labourers in the big cities.
Environmental economist Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed said: “There is no contesting the fact that communication is a constitutional right. But while taking any development project, governments in the developing countries first consider the economic viability of these projects. As a result, people in this remote areas keep on suffering for years and their livelihoods also change.”
Dr Ahsan, who is also a panel scientist of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggested that the government should take steps so that these people can at least get access to the market.