Dubai Telegraph - Sea swamps Bangladesh at one of world's fastest rates

EUR -
AED 3.848692
AFN 76.881633
ALL 99.162293
AMD 410.446761
ANG 1.882144
AOA 959.359665
ARS 1114.702451
AUD 1.689111
AWG 1.888917
AZN 1.779234
BAM 1.954128
BBD 2.108645
BDT 126.8914
BGN 1.955829
BHD 0.395009
BIF 3093.47865
BMD 1.047943
BND 1.408261
BOB 7.242801
BRL 6.348647
BSD 1.044376
BTN 91.208504
BWP 14.515231
BYN 3.417826
BYR 20539.68513
BZD 2.097775
CAD 1.518632
CDF 3007.596382
CHF 0.938863
CLF 0.025959
CLP 996.172399
CNY 7.634372
CNH 7.637666
COP 4323.813308
CRC 526.631694
CUC 1.047943
CUP 27.770493
CVE 110.170185
CZK 25.001792
DJF 185.975509
DKK 7.458108
DOP 64.992206
DZD 141.134734
EGP 53.069311
ERN 15.719147
ETB 131.825474
FJD 2.432643
FKP 0.824571
GBP 0.825748
GEL 2.918511
GGP 0.824571
GHS 16.242188
GIP 0.824571
GMD 75.442017
GNF 9065.024238
GTQ 8.082949
GYD 218.905682
HKD 8.148182
HNL 26.813731
HRK 7.534923
HTG 137.624733
HUF 399.278886
IDR 17228.054324
ILS 3.775582
IMP 0.824571
INR 91.444751
IQD 1372.352465
IRR 44141.278427
ISK 145.666171
JEP 0.824571
JMD 165.030835
JOD 0.743047
JPY 156.512408
KES 135.397613
KGS 91.907744
KHR 4218.535101
KMF 491.15588
KPW 943.2196
KRW 1527.072178
KWD 0.323343
KYD 0.86687
KZT 524.048773
LAK 22720.303148
LBP 94037.272367
LKR 309.259025
LRD 209.420157
LSL 19.477041
LTL 3.094303
LVL 0.633891
LYD 5.117213
MAD 10.388498
MDL 19.537266
MGA 4955.566394
MKD 61.940341
MMK 2199.475662
MNT 3637.498152
MOP 8.393135
MRU 41.773172
MUR 48.874722
MVR 16.178681
MWK 1816.910152
MXN 21.728429
MYR 4.679678
MZN 66.947627
NAD 19.477041
NGN 1571.237043
NIO 38.55537
NOK 11.756449
NPR 146.380184
NZD 1.868757
OMR 0.403441
PAB 1.047943
PEN 3.858985
PGK 4.213805
PHP 60.449412
PKR 293.041434
PLN 4.15576
PYG 8294.458271
QAR 3.81429
RON 4.968747
RSD 116.941238
RUB 93.993708
RWF 1490.669602
SAR 3.929832
SBD 8.907066
SCR 15.100541
SDG 629.56806
SEK 11.040893
SGD 1.408822
SHP 0.832723
SLE 23.945488
SLL 21974.84914
SOS 599.384771
SRD 37.259418
STD 21690.306772
SVC 9.169157
SYP 13625.968984
SZL 19.477041
THB 35.615239
TJS 11.417985
TMT 3.676026
TND 3.312685
TOP 2.523705
TRY 38.203547
TTD 7.111429
TWD 34.486796
TZS 2722.4239
UAH 43.579686
UGX 3853.254409
USD 1.047943
UYU 44.647457
UZS 13562.095998
VES 67.492369
VND 26824.413682
VUV 130.593055
WST 2.989114
XAF 654.874506
XAG 0.033036
XAU 0.000363
XCD 2.837029
XDR 0.799575
XOF 654.874506
XPF 119.331742
YER 259.125157
ZAR 19.517998
ZMK 9432.747406
ZMW 29.770569
ZWL 337.437257
  • RBGPF

    66.4300

    66.43

    +100%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    23.6

    +0.17%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    23.43

    +0.17%

  • GSK

    0.3600

    37.95

    +0.95%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    10.13

    -0.2%

  • NGG

    -0.4100

    61.72

    -0.66%

  • AZN

    -0.1100

    76.1

    -0.14%

  • BTI

    0.8400

    39.77

    +2.11%

  • RIO

    0.4900

    61.05

    +0.8%

  • SCS

    -0.3100

    11.85

    -2.62%

  • RELX

    0.1400

    48.51

    +0.29%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.9

    +1.01%

  • BCC

    -1.5000

    102.16

    -1.47%

  • BP

    -1.3100

    31.81

    -4.12%

  • BCE

    0.2900

    23.41

    +1.24%

  • JRI

    0.1200

    13.14

    +0.91%

Sea swamps Bangladesh at one of world's fastest rates
Sea swamps Bangladesh at one of world's fastest rates / Photo: Munir UZ ZAMAN - AFP

Sea swamps Bangladesh at one of world's fastest rates

After cyclone gales tore down his home in 2007, Bangladeshi fisherman Abdul Aziz packed up what was left of his belongings and moved about half a kilometre inland, further away from storm surge waves.

Text size:

A year later, the sea swallowed the area where his old home had been.

Now, 75-year-old Aziz fishes above his submerged former home and lives on the other side of a low earth and concrete embankment, against which roaring waves crash.

"The fish are swimming there in the water on my land", he told AFP, pointing towards his vanished village. "It is part of the advancing ocean."

Government scientists say rising seas driven by climate change are drowning Bangladesh's densely populated coast at one of the fastest global rates, and at least a million people on the coast will be forced to relocate within a generation.

"Few countries experience the far-reaching and diverse effects of climate change as intensely as Bangladesh," Abdul Hamid, director general of the environment department, wrote in a report last month.

The three-part study calculated the low-lying South Asian nation was experiencing a sea level rise in places more than 60 percent higher than the global average.

By 2050, at present rates of local sea level rise, "more than one million people may have to be displaced", it read, based on a quarter of a century of satellite data from the US space agency NASA and its Chinese counterpart CNSA.

- 'Closing in' -

Sea levels are not rising at the same rate around the world, due chiefly to Earth's uneven gravity field and variations in ocean dynamics.

Study lead A.K.M Saiful Islam said Bangladesh's above-average increases were driven by melting ice caps, water volumes increasing as oceans warm, and the vast amounts of river water that flow into the Bay of Bengal every monsoon.

The study provides "a clear message" that policymakers should be prepared for "mitigation and adaptation", he said.

Islam, a member of the UN's IPCC climate change assessment body, examined the vast deltas where the mighty Himalayan rivers of the Ganges and Brahmaputra reach the sea.

"In recent decades, the sea level rose 3.7 millimetres (0.14 inches) each year globally," Islam added.

"In our study, we saw that the sea level rise is higher along our coast... 4.2 millimetres to 5.8 millimetres annually."

That incremental rise might sound tiny. But those among the estimated 20 million people living along Bangladesh's coast say the destruction comes in terrifying waves.

"It is closing in," said fisherman Aziz about the approaching sea. "Where else can we escape?"

- 'Bodies can't endure this' -

The threat is increasing.

Most of the country's coastal areas are a metre or two above sea level, and storms bring seawater further inland, turning wells and lakes salty and killing crops on once fertile land.

"When the surge is higher, the seawater intrudes into our houses and land," said Ismail Howladar, a 65-year-old farmer growing chilli peppers, sweet potatoes, sunflowers and rice.

"It brings only loss for us."

Cyclones -- which have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades -- are becoming more frequent as well as growing in intensity and duration due to the impact of climate change, scientists say.

Shahjalal Mia, a 63-year-old restaurant owner, said he watches the sea "grasp more land" each year.

"Many people have lost their homes to the sea already," he said. "If there is no beach, there won't be any tourists."

He said he had experienced cyclones and searing heatwaves grow worse, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

"We are facing two, three, even four cyclones every year now," he said.

"And I can't measure temperatures in degrees but, simply put, our bodies can't endure this".

-'Too late' -

Bangladesh is among the countries ranked most vulnerable to disasters and climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

In April, the nation of around 170 million people experienced the hottest month, and the most sustained heatwave temperatures, in its history.

Last month, a cyclone that killed at least 17 people and destroyed 35,000 homes, was one of the quickest-forming and longest-lasting seen, the government's meteorological department said.

Both events were pinned on rising global temperatures.

Ainun Nishat, from Brac University in the capital Dhaka, said that the poorest were paying the price for carbon emissions from wealthier nations.

"We cannot do anything for Bangladesh if other nations, notably rich countries, do not do anything to fight emissions," he said.

Bangladesh is running out of time, Nishat added.

"It is becoming too late to prevent disasters," he said. "We are unequipped to bring change."

F.Chaudhary--DT