How will they understand the problems of the coast, sitting in Dhaka?

Dengue cases and deaths are crossing all records. Scientists are talking about an increase in disease outbreaks alongside climate change. Is the present dengue outbreak evidence of this?

A simple indicator that the climate is changing is that storms and rain are not taking place in the usual season. Before, we knew when to expect cyclone, when to expect rains. That regular seasonal cycle has broken down. In the past we would keep certain periods on time in the year in mind and take preventive measures accordingly. But what do we see now?

We see it rains briefly, the temperature rises and there is waterlogging. These are conditions conducive to the spread of dengue. So dengue is spreading rapidly and we are having to struggle with disease for extended periods of time. But we can’t simply blame climate change alone for this. There are some other inherent factors too.

Would you explain these factors?

I’m talking about the ecosystem. In the ecosystem one animal eats another animal. This maintains a balance in the environment. Before there used to be frogs, there used to be mosquitoes. Frogs gradually disappeared but the mosquitoes remained. We are seeing changes in environment that could be the result of climate change and also could be the result of human actions. You can catch frogs and export them to increase your earnings, but we don’t realise that this will increase mosquitoes too.

Again, the matter of temperature is closely linked with the lifecycle of bacteria or virus. We would know about the weather cycle before and understand diseases, what time chicken pox would break out and so on. But with the change in such timings, we can’t prepare accordingly.

We must also take into consideration how conducive our surroundings are to such disease. We often create such environments knowingly or unknowingly.

We need to carry out research on the weather cycle and the disease cycle together. If there had been studies about diseases and outbreaks, keeping climate change in mind, we could have been better prepared.

The government is blaming the general people for the spread of dengue. They are only talking about individual initiatives. What initiatives could we have taken as individuals and at a state level to tackle dengue?

We knew there would be an outbreak of dengue, but we took no preparations. Only after dengue arrived did we start jumping around. We only then started looking into what drugs may be effective, floated tenders, began running trials if we heard of anything new. There was no holistic planning.

We have been killing dengue mosquitoes for so many years, use so many insecticides, but have we tested which insecticide will be effective? We have no sort of analysis. We take up anything anyone suggests. Once they released guppies in the drain, once they said they would release frogs. I am not an entomologist, but we do have entomologists. Why are our policymakers not consulting them?

Climate change is a very technical subject. Politics and humans are both involved. So we have to plan taking everyone into consideration. Policymakers think that the administration’s decision is final. But they need to see if it is scientific or not.

There are many who still brush aside climate change as something in the distant future…

There are ‘pucca’ brick and cement houses in Satkhira town where the well-off stay. Climate change is having an impact there too now. They too are having to purchase water at high prices. The people in Paikgachha pay 40 times more the amount for water than you pay for the water you drink in Dhaka.

Many do not consider it a problem that the people of the coastal regions are having to pay so much to buy  water. Everything is Dhaka-centric, the political leaders sit here and take their decisions. They must be drinking bottled water when they go to the village. It is hard for them to understand the problems of the local people or the crisis of drinking water.

We talk about the rising sea level, and then again in Rajshahi and even in Dhaka, we hear that the groundwater level is falling. Why is this so?

You cannot look at climate change as anything set apart. It is a part of the overall change. Rivers, canals, wetlands and rain water are all linked to groundwater. There is a natural relation between rain and river water. Again, if there is a dam upstream then the relation changes. When we talk about the hydrological ecosystem we have to take climate change and manmade change both into consideration.

The sea level is rising. Now if the flow of water increases, this will have one type of effect on groundwater. For example, 100 metres of saline water will enter the soil. But is the natural flow of water is obstructed by a dam, then perhaps 1000 metres of saline water will enter in the same flow. And the impact of climate change is exacerbated a hundred times over because of certain human activities.

For instance?

Salinity is rising with the rise in sea levels. This rises when the shrimp farmers dig narrow channels and increase the soil’s salinity. This salinity also renders the fresh water in the area saline. That means the climate change effect is being spurred on multiple times by the shrimp farmers or by dams upstream.

Climate change and human-induced changes must be dealt with together. This is not happening because even though the shrimp farmers are people of the village, the shrimp farm owners are powerful. There is nobody to challenge them.

What effect does climate change have on water and sewerage systems?

When we speak of the threat of climate change, we often forget about these systems. Say if there is a cyclone. Everyone rushes to the cyclone centre. They return to find their tubewells and toilets are all destroyed. This would happen before too in cyclone prone areas. But back then there was an interval of five to ten years before such cyclones. So people could take time, arrange funds and repair the damages. Now storms are so frequent that they don’t have time to save up money for to build a new toilet. That means the poor are becoming poorer.

Also, earlier people would stay in the cyclone shelters for a matter of hours. Now they have to stay much longer. It often takes time for the water to recede. There is delay in their return home. And the suffering is worse for women. Handling menstruation in such circumstances is extremely difficult. Under stress, some give birth prematurely. They go through a nightmare.

How do you assess the destruction of the sanitation system by the cyclones Ampan, Aila and Sidr?

Before Aila, around 2009, WaterAid would ensure around 100 per cent sanitation. After Aila, that dropped to just about 50 per cent. Just a few hours of the cyclone wiped out our investment made over such a long time.

We didn’t have the knowhow back then about disaster-resistant infrastructure construction. The construction may not be 100 per cent resistant. In our work area now we are constructing disaster-resistant infrastructure and so the damages are less. One extra dollar invested leads to a 5 dollar gain.

An example?

Take tubewells, for instance. We can set up a tubewell in a high area and fix it in place with rods. This does not entail much cost.

Is the government doing anything effective? How is your interaction with the government?

Quite good. We try to share innovations in this sector with them. How much change we have managed to bring about remains a question. Those who are in planning, perhaps do not know much about all this. But there are quite a few officials now who make an effort to take up the good practices of the stakeholders.

There are problems in certain areas. When the government draws up a document, there are standard specifications. For example, the conditions about setting up a tubewell are same for all over the country. A decision must come from the centre that the infrastructure will be climate change tolerant. The government system must be relaxed a  bit. The involvement of a third party is needed. You can’t just blame the government alone. The systems we have put in place can be shown to university professors. But we see a deficit in that area. The government must make an announcement that they will take up whatever system is the best.

The availability of fresh water has fallen, water and sanitation are in a precarious state, how are people surviving in the coastal areas?

Some houses have just one pitcher of water. When that finishes, they have to travel far to collect fresh water and so people just drink less water. They cannot drink to fully quench their thirst. Even in rainwater harvesting, the water has a strange smell because perhaps the people are unable to conserve the water properly.

I visited a house and they said that their pond water was so good, it was a joy to drink. They brought water along with biscuits and chanachur. The water was murky. That was clear good water for them. They perhaps have no idea of the taste of fresh water. Owning a pond is also complicated. Perhaps few brothers own a pond. Some want to cultivate fish there because that is profitable. The government can at lease issue  a notice that the khas ponds will not be leased out for fisheries. But that is not being done.

Water harvesting is a recognised strategy, but how far does this meet the needs?

The government is making an effort. The women and children affairs ministry has taken initiative for rain water conservation under the green climate fund. But the funds in this sector are inadequate. The ultra poor cannot avail this. Then again, there are flaws in construction.

What is the state of funds for tackling the threat of climate change? Is the government able to spend the funds properly?

The funds we get as compensation for the climate change induced damages, are very inadequate. The foreign quarters are more interested in transfer of technology where less energy is used. They do not want to invest in adaptation, but are more interested in investing in mitigation. To put in simply, they want to pay to make vehicles free of carbon emissions. But we need assistance water treatment. This is a part of adaptation. We need water, they want to give electric cars. Our requirements do not tally with theirs.

Again, we often fail to present the details of our requirements clearly. Global climate finance expenditure in the water sector is only 3 per cent. Yet water faces a huge impact by climate change.

It looks like the government is spending the funds properly. The assistance we receive is inadequate. The government had asked for USD 235 billion, but did not get it.

Tell us something about the coastal women. Women always face the most risks in any disaster…

Women face the most harm due to climate change. Women remain at home till the very last minute in any disaster. They use bricks to raise the level of the bed. If necessary, they sit on the roof of the house. How can they use the toilet in such a situation. Can you imagine? And in this condition, they take a boat to fetch water, relief.

The cyclone shelters have problems too. The women are often harassed. In these areas it takes two or three hours to go and get water. This delays cooking and so the husbands abuse them. The girls help their mothers with work in the house. If the mother is ill, the daughter goes to fetch water. That is why many girls drop out of school.

Rural women still don’t use sanitary pads. They use cloth, wash it and reuse it. As they wash the cloth in saline water, they develop itching around their genitals. They can’t even discuss these problems with anyone. They may go to the health centre, but find there is no water there either because the government doesn’t pay the water bills. It is taken for granted that the health centres will use tubewell water. But there is no water in the region. Women contract eclampsia during child birth due to drinking saline water and the number of abortions are high too. In short, they are living a nightmare.

Thank you.

Thank you too.