Mohammad Anwar Hossain, 65 years old, is going through a tough time. One of his two houses has been destroyed and the other is submerged in floodwaters. For the past month, he, his wife, son, and grandson have been living together in a temporary polythene shelter on higher ground. Anwar and his sons work as day labourers in neighbouring houses just to make ends meet. They manage their meals on a day-to-day basis, relying on rice and relief supplies. In the afternoons, Anwar goes fishing with his son, and whatever fish they catch helps sustain the family.
What has climate change done here?
We are drowning in water—you have to wade through knee-deep water just to get here. The circumstances are so bad that we are all floating now. What can we do? We must accept things as Allah wills. Whenever a storm approaches, we take shelter in the cyclone center with our children and grandchildren. Even keeping poultry has become a challenge; the few we had were lost in the storm, along with our cows, ducks, and chickens. You can see it for yourself. The fish in our ponds have been swept away. We even bought fishnets to try and keep them in, but it was useless—thousands of takas worth of fish are gone. The trees have been uprooted as well, and the floods keep coming, more frequently with each passing day.
What do you think world leaders have to do now to stop things from getting worse and to help us adapt?
Our financial position is bad, and with the loss of our fish, trees, cows, and goats, we have nothing left. If they could help us, as the saying goes, “everyone working together hand in hand would solve all problems.”
We need to plant more trees, raise the grounds, and clean the ponds. But what more can we do? We also need to dig canals, as there are none, and it’s urgently needed. If there were canals, the water wouldn’t rise as much, like in the cities where water quickly drains away. But now, almost every month, there’s a disaster. People can see what’s happening to us, and how we’re struggling to survive, through their television screens and the internet. It would have been good if they came to our lowland areas and stood by us.
Life expectancy 2023
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