Page 14 - Respond 2018 Magazine

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Where will they go? Ponds and canals have been concreted over with no regard
Travelling inland from the salt-soaked coast, for the natural drainage they provided. Monsoon rainbursts
the trees get taller, the cows wandering across frequently submerge streets in knee-high water.
the road fatter, the crops more diverse: jute, Climate change will only intensify the pressures that drive
banana, bitter gourd. Every field and pond is in people to the capital. If the slums are claustrophobic, the
use; there is seasonal work to be found, but no alternative – leaving the country – is daunting. India is
permanent home for the dispossessed. welcoming enough to middle class Bangladeshis doing their
Eid shopping, but an armed border patrol is there to deter
Nazzma Begum came from Bhola, on the coast, as an unskilled labourers. Catching a plane to a wealthier nation is
18-month-old baby. Now 32 and a widow, Dhaka is her an outrageously expensive gamble. For every success story,
only home: her parents lost everything to river erosion. She there are cautionary tales of exploitation.
shares a single room with her two children in the generically
named “boat ghat” slum and makes a living cooking and The UN Population Division estimates the Bangladeshi
cleaning for wealthier families. diaspora at 7.2 million, which is almost certainly an
understatement. India alone claims to have 20 million
City life has its upsides: Begum loves the cinema, naming her Bangladeshis living within its borders, most of them illegally,
elder son after film star Shakib Khan. An electric light and although that could equally be an exaggeration.
ceiling fan is included in the 1,800 taka ($22) monthly rent.
But her flimsy shack lets mosquitoes in and she is suffering Awareness of climate migration is well established at an
from the chikungunya virus – a disease that causes severe international level. “As regions become unliveable, more and
joint pain. more people will be forced to move from degraded lands
to cities and to other nations,” said UN secretary-general
Her neighbour Mohamed Miraz, also from Bhola, came to Antonio Guterres in a speech on climate change.
Dhaka after one too many fishing nets came up empty. If
he can save enough, he will go back and buy land. A single Plans to deal with it are embryonic, however. A task force on
acre costs as much as he earns in a thousand days pulling a displacement under the auspices of UN climate talks had its
rickshaw. The struggle to escape poverty is relentless. first meeting in May. Its work plan grapples with patchy data
The population of Dhaka has roughly doubled in 20 years and institutional clashes.
to 19 million, its rapid growth not matched by its planners.

Millions of Bangladeshis are living in India, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Middle East.
The precise number is hard to count because many travelled illegally. Data is from
various sources and may not be comprehensive.