Rising sea levels: Livelihoods lost to development, homes lost to the sea

Along the embankment at Sairar Deil, adjacent to the Matarbari coal-fired power plant in Maheshkhali upazila of Cox’s Bazar, the coastline bears the marks of destruction. Across the beach beside the embankment lie traces of devastated settlements — fragments of walls from houses swept away by tidal surges, tree trunks uprooted and broken by crashing waves. For nearly two and a half kilometres along the north-south stretch of the beach, the fury of the sea is visible everywhere. In recent years, about 600 houses in this village have disappeared into the sea.

Standing on the embankment, local resident Yusuf pointed toward the sea, trying to identify where his house once stood. “Since 2023, the sea had been slowly advancing,” he said. “Many people’s houses were being washed away, but I thought it wouldn’t reach mine.”

That belief proved false the following monsoon. The sea came so close that at night the roar of the waves felt as if they were crashing right onto the house. He didn’t wait any longer—he moved his furniture and belongings, taking his wife and three children to his in-laws’ house. Within two days, the sea swallowed his home. He now fears even the embankment may not hold for long.

Over the years, Abdul Malek, 45, has lost his home three times to the advancing sea. The fourth house he built now stands at risk of being engulfed again. Sitting in his yard this July, Malek told Prothom Alo, “When I was young, the sea was at least one kilometre away from the embankment. But it has been eroding steadily. We lost our homestead three times. I doubt even our current home will survive.”

He added, “Because of the erosion, we’ve had to move farther inland each time. Now we’ve built our house right at the foot of the embankment. Last year, the high tide reached the walls of our house. The sea is growing fiercer every year, and several neighbourhoods have already disappeared beneath the waves.”

Local residents say that over the past five years, around 600 families have been displaced by coastal erosion. The areas of Jaliapara and Baharpara have already been submerged by the sea.

Kamal Hossain, a resident of northern Sairar Deil, said, “The sea used to be far from the embankment. In recent years, tidal surges have become much stronger. What used to be a normal tide now rises three to four feet higher.”

A 2024 study conducted by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) under the Department of Environment found that from 1993 to 2020, the sea level in Bangladesh rose by an average of 5.8 millimetres per year, compared to the global average of 3.8 millimetres.

The study, titled “Estimation of Sea Level Rise (SLR) in Bangladesh Using Satellite Altimetry Data,” was carried out by BUET’s Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM).

Altimetry data helps measure changes in sea level by analysing radar signals from satellites to determine the distance between the Earth’s surface, particularly the ocean, and the satellite.

According to IWFM’s report, satellite altimetry provides an excellent method for measuring water levels from space. Using this method, the study mapped sea level rise between 1993 and 2019 across the Ganges coastal floodplain, Meghna estuarine floodplain, and Chattogram coastal areas.

The study was led by Professor AKM Saiful Islam of BUET’s IWFM, who is also a contributing author to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Speaking to Prothom Alo, he explained, “Ice sheets in Antarctica, Greenland, and the South Pole are melting. Due to global warming, thermal expansion occurs in seawater. Together, these processes cause sea level rise.”

Citing the study, he added, “The sea level will continue to rise, and along with it, tidal surges and storm intensities will increase. Coastal areas will experience greater wave impact and erosion, something we are already witnessing. Some areas will gradually go underwater. It’s not an overnight event but a slow process. If greenhouse gas emissions continue at this rate, sea level could rise by one meter (3.28 feet) by the end of this century.”

Professor Saiful Islam further warned of an additional crisis: “Because embankments prevent natural sedimentation, the land cannot build up and is instead subsiding. This phenomenon, known as land subsidence, is another danger. So while land is sinking, the sea level is rising — together this results in what’s called relative sea level rise.”

The study noted that more than 40 million people live along Bangladesh’s coast, most of them at elevations of only one to one and a half meters above sea level. Even a small rise could create major risks for these populations.

Another recent study titled “Estimating Vertical Land Motion-Adjusted Sea Level Rise in Data-Sparse and Vulnerable Coastal Regions” was conducted by Curtin University, Australia, focusing on Bangladesh’s southeastern coastline.

That study divided the coast into three regions—eastern, central, and western. It found that in the eastern region (Chattogram–Cox’s Bazar), the sea level is rising by 6.23 millimetres per year; in the central region, by 1.49 millimetres; and in the western region (the Sundarbans), by 2.4 millimetres annually.

Asked about this, Ashraf Dewan, Director of Research at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, told Prothom Alo, a massive wave of development is underway in Cox’s Bazar — with power plants and large infrastructure changing land use. The soil here is sedimentary, so the heavy infrastructure causes land subsidence. Combined with global sea level rise, this has increased risks along the eastern coast.

When contacted, Nurul Islam, Executive Engineer of the Water Development Board (WDB) in Cox’s Bazar, said that the embankments in Matarbari and Dhalghat cover a total length of 32 kilometres. Of this, 6.5 kilometres are highly vulnerable, while another 18 kilometres require repair.

He added, last fiscal year, we used geo-bags to protect 829 meters of the embankment from erosion. But with the sea’s growing ferocity, it’s hard to keep it intact for long.

The process of land acquisition for the Matarbari coal-based power plant began under the former authoritarian government, with the promise of transforming Matarbari into a “second Singapore.”

Around 2012, the development organisation ActionAid conducted a study to assess the impact of this land acquisition on the lives of the people of Matarbari. The study found that around 90,000 people were directly or indirectly affected by the construction of the power plant.

The total population of Matarbari is about 100,000. A total of 2,880 acres of salt fields were acquired. Around 20,000 people, including salt farmers, shrimp farmers, and fish and crab cultivators, were affected by the project. The union itself covers only 27 square kilometres of land, along with four square kilometres of forest area. According to ActionAid’s report, due to the obstruction of natural water flow caused by the power plant, 23 villages now get flooded during every monsoon season.

A 2022 report by the Department of Environment stated that to connect the main road with the power plant, the Roads and Highways Department occupied a 13-kilometre stretch of the Kuhelia River and built a 7.5-kilometer-long road. In the process, 26 acres of the river were filled in.

The majority of local people’s livelihoods used to come from traditional activities such as collecting shrimp fry from rivers and the sea, working as labourers in salt fields, and transporting salt. To build the Matarbari power plant, 1,608 acres of land—entirely salt fields—were acquired. In addition, a section of the Kuhelia River was filled in to construct the access road to the power plant. As a result, both salt transportation and shrimp fry collection have been severely affected.

Ramzan Ali from South Sayrar Deil told Prothom Alo, “I used to fish in the Kuhelia River. I worked in the salt fields occasionally too. I earned between 500 and 1,000 taka a day. After the power project came, we lost everything. On one side, our homes went into the sea, and on the other, our professions were destroyed by the project.”

“We have now become such a Singapore where people starve,” said Ramzan. He added that the government had promised rehabilitation during the project’s planning phase. There were also assurances of employment once the project was implemented. But no one kept their word.

Abdul Khalek of Sayrar Deil used to regularly fish near the seashore with a small dinghy. He said, those who used to fish around the coastal areas with small boats can no longer do so. The sea waves have become too rough. On the other hand, part of the Kuhelia River was filled up to build the road to the Matarbari power plant, making the river narrower. Now there are not as many fish as before.

Jabbar Hossain, a farmer affected by the land acquisition for the power plant, told Prothom Alo, “On one side, the sea, and on the other, the development project—both have become a thorn in our throat. We lost our salt fields to the power plant, and at any moment our homes could sink into the sea. This year alone, at least 100 families have lost their houses during the monsoon.”

Jabbar said, “When the government took our houses and salt fields for the power plant, they promised rehabilitation. But that promise was never fulfilled. Salt farming was our ancestral profession, passed down from our forefathers. Now we’ve had to abandon it.”

Jabbar once cultivated salt on about four acres of land, earning enough for a comfortable life. Now, after losing his home, he has taken shelter with his family on the embankment at Sayrar Deil.

According to Idris Ali, inspector of the Cox’s Bazar Salt Industry Development Office, the two adjacent unions of Dhalghata and Matarbari once had nearly 6,000 acres of salt fields. About 3,366 acres of those salt fields were acquired for the power plant and seaport construction.

In Maheshkhali upazila, there are 14,000 salt farmers cultivating 17,442 acres of land. Annual salt production amounts to 564,906 metric tons. Alongside the 14,000 farmers, around 30,000 people work as assistants in the salt fields. This year, the salt production target was set at 2.61 million tons. The salt season ended on 17 May, with a total output of around 2.25 million tons. The majority of the country’s salt is produced in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar districts.

Maulana Mohsin, general secretary of the Maheshkhali Jono Surokkha Moncho, who has long been advocating for the protection of Maheshkhali residents’ lives and livelihoods, told Prothom Alo, “By selling the dream of turning Matarbari into Singapore, all the local resources have been destroyed. There was a promise that local people would get priority in employment at the power plant since they lost their land and livelihoods. But in the end, labourers from outside were brought in to work at the plant.”

He added, while climate change is submerging parts of Matarbari under the sea, the traditional sources of livelihood for local people should have been preserved. Instead, those very sources have been taken away in the name of development projects.

Mohsin said, here, development means nothing but destroying ordinary people’s lives. On one hand, fish in the sea are disappearing due to pollution from the power plant. On the other, salt fields have been taken away for the same project. The government should step forward with a concrete plan to support the affected people of Matarbari.

*The report, published in Prothom Alo print edition in Bangla, has been rewritten in English by Farjana Liakat