Climate refugees in Bangladesh | DW Documentary

[Music] the world seems to pay attention to Bangladesh only when catastrophe strikes there but for Bangladeshis natural disasters have become part of everyday life here an entire village is fleeing the effects of climate change [Music] this woman has lost her home where will I live now we're tearing down the house I first came to thirty years ago when I got married I gave birth to my four children they're my two daughters got married there it just breaks my heart [Music] the extreme conditions people here face may soon affect us all six kilometers from here we had two hectares of land to see gobbled them up [Music] [Music] most Bangladeshi climate refugees moved to the mega city of Dhaka the country's capital an estimated 2,000 people arrived in Dhaka every day during monsoon season the number rises to 4,000 today [Music] [Music] the world's second-largest river delta is located on the bay of bengal two large rivers flow through the country from north to south the Brahmaputra and the ganges much of the land in bangladesh is flat and it's numerous rivers often burst their banks the country is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change a real danger for its 160 million people there are a number of factors involved in the impacts of human-induced climate change on the river systems and the water systems firstly the glacier ice melt in the Himalayas the second impact is on flooding we will have greater amounts and intensities of rainfall during the monsoon which will cause more flooding we are already seeing that our what used to be a 1 in 20 year flood has now effectively become a 1 in 5 year flood so the magnitude of floods has increased already and will increase even more with human India's climate change and the third factor are cyclones that come from the Bay of Bengal in the South those are going to become more intense and we are going to have to deal with higher intensity cyclones [Music] even now at the beginning of monsoon season the Brahmaputra is nine kilometres wide at some points it's filled with melted snow from the Himalayas another effect of climate change in future other rivers around the world may experience similar increases in water volume this is where the Brahmaputra merges with the Ganges to become the Padma when these rivers flood it can have a devastating effect on nearby communities as here in the village of hairy rump or here on the left the Patna river destroyed everything in just three days on the right everything was gone in four days the river has covered an area of 61 hectares in our village 300 families lost their homes because of the extreme River erosion I'm really scared our house may be gone soon eleven-year-old mahfooz Hussein walks past an area that used to be a garden [Music] the local residents are preparing to move inland to escape the rising water one of masseuses neighbors says he's not going to let the river take this tree ma fuzes house is 50 yards from the danger zone but the situation here could become worse when monsoon season starts this used to be the center of the village now it looks like a battlefield you can still see the remains of several houses this fragile sapling has become a symbol for the villagers as floods caused by climate change consume the ground beneath their feet until yesterday montage big goon lived in this house with several members of her family including her son his wife and their child I didn't sleep at all last night I'm worried that I'm going to drown in the flood waters the house was the family's pride and joy montages son and some workers are salvaging everything they can from the structure where will I live now my house is gone I'll have to rely on the kindness of others I'm going to have to move to duck huntin find a job so I can afford to come back here buy some land and rebuild my parents home the river flooded the big oom family's farmland two years ago montages husband and her oldest son left to take construction jobs in the United Arab Emirates the younger son Saleem has now also become a climate refugee in his own country I'm so sad my father built this house and now I have to tear it down that really hurts [Music] Mumtaj bakhoum is saying a prayer like I remember where does all this water come from the Ganges flows the longest from the Himalayan mountains into India for about 2,000 kilometers before it comes to Bangladesh much of the water is taken away upstream in India by a series of dams the biggest being the Farakka dam just outside the border of Bangladesh as a result Bangladesh is not receiving as much water as it used to in the dry season the problem is in the monsoon season they open up all the water they let it come through Bangladesh but during the dry season they take the water away and divert it away from one relation we don't get enough water so we have floods in the monsoon period and we have too little water in the dry season [Music] the lives of these people have been severely disrupted by the effects of climate change and the water resource policies of a neighboring country Bangladeshis are left with few options but to try to protect themselves Salim and the others transport the walls and roof of the house deep into the forest he hopes to return to the village one day he hopes that the job he finds in Dhaka will earn him enough money to buy some land here many in the village have similar plans no one here actually wants to go to the capital but they believe they have no other choice [Music] from the money guns region we moved Southwest to the post Scheuer river which flows through the Sundarbans region Sundarbans means beautiful forest in Bengali the area covers 10,000 square kilometers most of it in Bangladesh and it's home to the world's largest mangrove forest region it's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site which under one's is actually seen as the lungs of Bangladesh it absorbs all the pollution for us mr. thundermans protects Bangladesh and if we lose that protection then the country loses its protection the Sundarbans forest helps to protect millions of people from floods that are caused by cyclones it also offers a rich habitat for wildlife including the endangered Bengal tiger the region is the country's largest source of forest based raw materials but its future is under threat the Sunderbans is dying in front of our eyes due to Salina intrusion and impacts of climate change [Music] because the bay of bengal is slowly rising saltwater is getting into the freshwater channels of the Sundarbans and there's another environmental threat the government plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the region very totally and detailed study of that so that it will not how much to the environments and this is not so many actually two three four power plants that means we have planned within 2040 30% of the apartment will be from the coal but it will be a clean coal energy many are against the power plant which is a joint venture between public sector power agencies in Bangladesh and India India will build the plant located near rampa under the supervision of a German company once construction is completed India would also operate the facility UNESCO has asked the government to provide an environmental impact study on the project it is a completely a disastrous decision to build a coal-fired power plant so close to the forest and all environmental indications indicate that it will bring her disastrous consequences for the survival of the forest and in general for the environment we have in fact from save - under bonds committee produce 17 reports from various aspects that what will be the effect of Rampal coal plant on flora and fauna on the Schindler burns itself on the water the river erosion about the dredging problem and everything which shows very scientifically that it's definitely going to harm Schindler bonds India will supply the coal that the plant will burn the post Shore River is to be dredged nearby to make room for the transport ships environmental experts say the dredging operation will contribute to River erosion this is the pusher River about 90 kilometers above the point where it empties into the Bay of Bengal there are numerous fishing villages along the riverbanks the Christian minority in this village have put up a cross people have to walk carefully through the mud so they don't fall [Music] [Music] the main entrance to our old church was over there we built a new one but the river took it to 15 days ago I lost my house again to River erosion it was on this side where the poacher river is now my house was next to that church entrance the effects of climate change often hit the poorest of the poor the hardest swapna Kahn is raising a teenaged son and her husband is ill after the last flood a neighbor allowed her to build a small dwelling on his property she used materials from what was left of her house solar energy panels are common here in a village that has been ravaged by the effects of climate change my son sleeps back there and I sleep here in the front this is all we have swapna harvests river shrimp and sells them in the hut they sleep in her son attends a local school she wants him to have a better life I can't read or write so I don't have a lot of options I was born here and I don't want to live anywhere else I can earn a little money here just enough to get by swapna also owns a few sheep she calls them her life insurance policy she can sell the sheep to pay for her son's education but for now she's concerned about the river which is moving closer to her home swapna's elderly neighbor is also worried about the rising water I told my son that when I die he should put my body in the river because there's no land left to bury me [Music] we travel from the village of baan Gaeng cool to chilaka Punia the scenes of devastation are almost identical this is the grave of my grandfather the mourner bursar if we could find some land I could take the grave with me and rebuild it then roni besar climbs a coconut tree to get some of its fruit before the river washes those away too [Music] nothing here is safe from the rising water not even the graves of the dead [Music] a similar scene in the next village eight people live here the family of Shushan Tokumaru Mandar who earns a living as a fisherman his wife Roopa Bachar says they've had to rebuild their house three times a lot of our neighbors have gone to dhaka to work in the textile factories and there are fewer fish in the river shushant oh and his son fish in the Sundarbans just like his father before him now a Shonto fears that the coal-fired power plant will pollute the water here if we don't catch enough fish I'll have to take a job as a day laborer [Music] I can't move my entire family to the city alone ah shoulder [Music] from the Sundarbans we now move east to bola the largest island in Bangladesh [Music] fortified dykes were built along the Magna River after the last round of floods [Music] the dykes were built too late to help muhammad mustafa Maji his village was washed away by the river three years ago because he couldn't farm anymore he turned to fishing there was a mosque here a school and some houses but because of river erosion and flooding we had to move to another village Alisha more than a hectare of my land is under water here the village of Alisha is now protected by the Dyke but only a few of the 2,000 residents of muhammad's old village have been able to find a new home Mohammed says he was lucky because a local resident rented him some land and he built a new house there he lives here with his wife one of his three sons his daughter-in-law and a grandchild his son Abu Taher helps his father on the fishing boat the family can't grow their own vegetables anymore so they have to buy them this is Muhammad's daughter in law and his grandchild I've had to move three times because of River erosion if it happens again we'll all have to go to talk my two brothers already live there we had no money to pay for my younger brother's education [Music] 20 kilometers upstream we find another village ravaged by floodwaters the Dyke burst here four days ago it was the day of the Muslim feast of the sacrifice the river carried away everything we owned there was a cyclone and a lot of rain the wind flattened my home I still come to the river every day I was terrified and I can still feel it in my bones the river has taken everything I don't know how to survive this the farmer Mohammed new role Alam lives in the village of Dori rum pour we had a lot of fields scattered around the village almost a whole hectare of land only this rice field remains but the water no longer drains off the authorities have built a new dike here and a storm shelter but the shelter is dangerously close to the riverbank [Music] and the Dyke has cut off Muhammad's village from the rest of the region [Music] look at this rice the roots are rotting I have no idea what to do Allah help me and show me the way he Kabul the local residents fear that the Magna River will soon wash away everything this is what's left of Mohammed's house his young family and parents now sleep in temporary accommodations there's an old saying in Bangladesh water is the mother of our country but Muhammad believes that is no longer the case water used to mean life to me but now it means dancing is not new in the flat country Bangladesh it was once welcomed the rivers deposit alluvial soil throughout the Delta region and this creates some of the country's best farmland but now it is from 80s to 70s the huge changes is happening because of the monsoon season the zone of the cyclones because of the sea water rise and because of the high speed of the wheel you know the velocity of the Padma rebars pose it is 10 times higher than the German so speed of the water is very high dome alien cubic feet per second water speed then it is creating the river erosion although these people are a very innocent victim of the climate change because they are emitting only 3 kgs of carbon annually but compared to developed countries developed countries people emitting not less than 15 to 20 tonnes of carbon due to the sea-level rise which the beginning to happen and which should happen in a major way in Bangladesh beyond 2050 according to the IPCC's report Bangladesh will lose anything between 17 to 20 percent of his current landmass a 20% land loss to the sea due to sea level rise will cause at least 25 to 30 million people to be displaced within the country so we are going to create the largest refugee population due to climate change in one single country this school which has 2,000 pupils is threatened by the rising River even now [Music] the primary school has already been shut down the remaining rooms are now overcrowded but the loss of livelihoods of the population will be much larger we're talking about 20 to 30% of the population of the country that will be badly affected those living in the coastal areas in the low-lying coastal areas and eventually they will have to move so they are the potential future climate migrants and that clearly they are undoubtedly climate migrants these fortified cement blocks that make up the dike near the village of Alesia are being undermined by the river that flows past at least one of the blocks falls into the water every day the blocks aren't holding so this area will be flooded too it's dangerous for all of us hardly a day passes when Muhammad Mustafa Maajid does not see ships full of people headed for Dhaka [Music] every day there are more than 200 slums in Dhaka are receiving more and more what one might call environmental refugees or even climate change refugees coming from other parts of the country to Dhaka City [Music] [Music] Danka has now come to a size of 20 million people without the adequate infrastructure [Music] [Music] on the outskirts of the city factory waste and garbage laid on the streets salute een is mohamed mostafa ma geez 26 year old son he now lives in a slum that's located near the textile factory where he works the textile workers share this public bath if my parents land hadn't been flooded I'd still be in the village going to school we had to move three or four times because of flooding my parents finally ran out of money that's why I had to come to Dhaka first I worked in a shop but it didn't pay much that's why I switched to the textile factory so lutein his wife and child live in this small apartment life in the village was good I went to school and lived in my parents house I won't see that kind of life ever again there's no working bowler so I had to move here this is so low teens daily route to his job at the textile factory [Music] [Music] thousands of other climate refugees make a similar trip every day [Music] in front of the factory day laborers gather to see whether there's any work available for them that day [Music] people also wait outside the big companies around the corner to find out whether there are any jobs for them today [Music] [Applause] what do our machine I make the equivalent of about 125 euros a month I have to support my wife and child pay the rent and buy food I spent everything I had it's cheap labour the clothing that's made here is later sold in Western countries including Germany and France Muhammad's wife earns a little extra money at home by sewing clothes for the textile companies I get 5 cents per blouse my neighbor brings them over 1/4 of the money that my husband earns goes to pay the rent but if we get sick we have to borrow money from our families that's the only way that we can afford to see a doctor Sayeed is the boatman from bola Mohammad McGee's eldest son he sells mangoes on the streets of Dhaka here he's buying his fruit at a big wholesale market he was ill for three months and his debts piled up Saeed and a neighbor transport the mangoes in a bicycle cart and they share the cost of renting the vehicle Dhaka is filled with street vendors [Music] [Applause] many climate refugees live in miserable conditions there's garbage everywhere and open sewers nearby some people who came here from the island of bola have formed their own community they call it the bola slum the area is surrounded by high-rise buildings where white-collar workers live [Music] many of the slums residents work in those homes Syed's wife earns extra money by cleaning apartments we went hungry in bulla I had no choice but to move to Dhaka what else could I do our house was gone and the river kept flooding I didn't have much of a choice Sayid his wife and two children live in this cramped room so yet sister has also had to move to Dhaka my kids both go to school my wife and I can't read or write but we want the children to have an education I want to take my family back to Paulo there's no future for me and I'd like to build a house in the village and my kids could go to school an estimated one-third of daka's population live in slums the city's infrastructure is on the verge of collapse what would happen if up to 30 million more people moved to Dhaka over the next 20 years there would very likely be severe shortages of food and water and acha itself is at risk from the effects of climate change the city is situated on alluvial flatland and surrounded by lakes and rivers the climate refugees often build their shacks in areas that are flooded during the monsoon season there are no toilets and they have no clean drinking water since many of the refugees are living in illegal squatter settlements local officials arrive on a regular basis to evict them [Music] sometimes all the refugees can take with them is food mostly rice once again the refugees are driven from their homes not by floods this time but by the government if we are unable to completely manage this it can lead to conflict it will lead to destabilization it can lead to social conflict within country or within region or it can lead to in interstate conflict between states and countries so in all accounts and consequences this is of urgent need that we need to get a clear understanding of the whole issue of managing climate refugees and large numbers so that we have the mechanisms in place when it happens it seems as though we are already seeing the early stages of these conflicts why is the government doing this to us the authorities were bribed to do this there is no justice for the poor this government is just useless at 25 to 30 million displaced refugees will not only destabilize Bangladesh from within it will also destabilize the stability and the security of the region because it will result in large-scale trans boundary migration into the neighboring regions of the country that will cause serious destabilization on a regional scale [Music] we move on to the island of koutoubia on the bay of bengal along the coast of bangladesh the sea level is rising by up to 21 millimeters per year the world average is 3 millimeters the coastline is so flat that major floods can cause enormous damage you see the embankment has gone saline order including in the houses it is just four days ago the forces of the cadets is very strong government is constructing this embankment every year but it is unable to sustain result Kareem Chaudhary executive director of a coastal protection organization warns about potential health hazards people start getting the water drinking water which high level of ppb salinity so it's creating blood pressure high and creating a lot of diseases people are unprotected from that climate changes basically especially the coastal population which is around here not less than 40 million UNICEF supports Choudhary's organization which provides microcredits and other support for people who've been affected by flooding storms and other natural disasters Chaudhary believes that once the monsoon season starts the storms will destroy this family's home he points out that developed countries will not reach this year's Paris agreement targets for limiting global warming and reducing co2 emissions experts say that's a major cause for concern concretely it means that the whole world is in very great danger Bangladesh is only one part of that world Bangladesh is the first part of the world which will be inundated by sea level rise and affected by the impacts of climate change but every country in the world including Germany is going to affected sooner or later the best way to express this will be either we all sell together or we will all sing together Rizal Karim Chaudhary says the locals don't know that they are climate refugees so you became that climate refuses or Kapoor refuses but they don't know this they are considered that it is faith from the God [Music]

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 728,191

Keywords: documentary, climate change, Bangladesh, climate refugees, flight, DW, DW Documentary, floods, floods Bangladesh, climate change documentary 2019, Asia, Dhaka, climate, global warming, environment, global warming documentary, dw documentaries 2019, dw documentaries english, rising water level

Id: co5uywe-1Z8

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019