Poverty is higher where the impact of climate change is high

Ever since the independence of this country, BRAC has been working in the areas of poverty alleviation, education, mother and child health and more. What circumstances prompted BRAC to take up the issue of tackling the threat of climate change?

Asif Saleh: At BRAC we were working on our 2021-25 operational strategy. In the seventies and the eighties BRAC worked in ensuring people’s fundamental rights. There was a time when we ran 64,000 schools. BRAC has worked in health, poverty alleviation and agriculture too. We felt that at this moment there was no need for any programme at a national level. We finalised our plan keeping 20 million (2 crore) ultra poor people in mind. The country has been advancing through economic development since independence, but these people had failed to catch that train. It was noted that poverty was higher in the areas where the impact of climate change was high. We have an ultra poor graduation programme. In that programme it was seen that someone may have been trying to emerge out of poverty with a small plot of land or a small fish farm, but wasn’t being able to advance because of climate change. The impact of climate change is actually widespread.

What climate change dangers do you get to hear about from the field?

Asif Saleh: No matter what work we do, we have to look at it through the climate change lens. Let me give you an example. We do economic and livelihood related work with marginalized people. The agriculture sector is hit hardest by climate change. But it was seen that changes had to be brought about to the health programmes in the areas facing the most damage. Earlier we perhaps just worked with maternal and child health. How we see that due to increased salinity, not only is maternal health deteriorating, but there is an increase in high blood pressure and diabetes. Brain haemorrhage fatalities are the highest in Khulna. There are 35 districts in the country at risk of climate change. Within 10 years or so, a large section of the people in this country will suffer from the scarcity of clean drinking water. Based on information from the field we have accordingly divided our work into four broad areas.

What are the areas of your work?

Asif Saleh: The water crisis is a big challenge. There is a salinity crisis in the Sundarbans or our southern region, drought in the Varendra region and a water crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts too. The people in these regions are not getting clean drinking water or water to irrigate their agricultural land. We first wanted to find a solution to this. We noted that the average rainfall in Bangladesh may not have decreased. But the rains are not starting when they are supposed to and are not a long lasting as supposed to be. There can be rain like that of a month in just two or three days. This water can be stored by rain water harvesting. We are trying to set up a model for this in an upazila in Satkhira. We are trying to see how a household can run on this stored water, how the community can share this water, or how water entrepreneurs can work.

What do you mean by water entrepreneurs?

Asif Saleh: The function of water entrepreneurs will be to treat saline water in a small water treatment plant and supply this to those who can afford it. We want our model to spread. Funds are a significant matter here. It is costing us USD 5 million to implement various water-related programmes in just one single upazila. I was just talking about Satkhira. Then in the Varendra region we had to take up a different initiative. It was in this region that two brother committed suicide as they failed to avail water for irrigation. Immediately after this incident, our team went there and found that a huge syndicate had grown over water. That situation has worsened due to climate change. We talked to the farmers. Ponds can be excavated in the area. We are trying to bring in the initiatives to resolve the water crisis that have successfully been implemented in Rajasthan and similar desert lands. We have kept a large allocation for this region. And it is not enough just to resolve the crisis. We have to ensure accessibility for the marginalized people.

You mentioned working in four broad areas…

Asif Saleh: The crop calendar has changed due to climate change. Crops are not being harvested at the normal scheduled time. There is the lack of rain, excessive rain, flash floods, all sorts of things happening.

Then there is the problem of salinity. We have a lot of work in agriculture. We have to work with water. Changes must be brought to the existing agricultural work. We need salinity-resistant crops, fruit and so on for the southern region. We are cultivating sunflowers in Assasuni, Satkhira. The farmers can make a good earning by selling sunflowers.

The third aspect is risk reduction. Since the climate is erratic, we have to work in such a manner that the risk-taking capacity of the marginalized people increases. For example, the houses that we make must be capable of withstanding the impact of climate change. This does not entail excessive cost. Just changing the design of the house a bit is enough.

We have taken up another thing, crop insurance. Losing  crops in flash floods has become a regular phenomenon in Sunamganj. Low cost crop insurance has become very important for the people of this region. We kept the potato cultivators in mind when we came up with the crop insurance this time. Untimely rain damages their crop. The farmers got premium on their insurance this time. Their losses may not have been fully covered with this, but it was possible for them to buy seeds again and go into production.

Another thing is that we have connected with MIT in order to receive weather forecasts properly. They have created modelling for Satkhira through satellite images. In this manner we get news of any disaster from six months to a year in advance.

Many people are being displaced due to climate change and this will happen in the future too. What will the climate adaptation process be for them? We hear that the coastal region will be submerged…

Asif Saleh: We have learnt that 17 per cent of the land will go under water by 2047. It is not that we will wake up one fine morning in 2047 and find 17 per cent of our land has gone under water. Silent displacement has been going on for quite a few years now. We carried out a survey in Dhaka’s slums. This revealed that 63 per cent of the displaced persons had come from 10 districts. The impact of climate change was stronger in these districts. From that aspect we can create climate-friendly townships.

Is it possible to change Dhaka?

Asif Saleh: It is not that everyone will have to come to Dhaka. People from Satkhira can perhaps go to Khulna, people from Bhola can go to Barishal. We have spoken to the people and the mayors of the region about creating a climate migrant friendly township in Mongla. This plan may be finalised in 2024. At the same time work is on in Satkhira, the Varendra region, Chittagong Hill Tracts and the haor regions. There is a water crisis in Chittagong Hill Tracts. This region is economically backward too. There is much to learn from the people of this region as their lives are so closely entwined with nature. The West is learning and so should we.

We, the urban people in particular, still see climate change as a far cry. How far are the common people cooperating?

Asif Saleh: There was a time when climate change was viewed as a complicated scientific matter. But our people have long been struggling with climate change. Their fruits and crops are being damaged. They are not getting adequate fish. They are losing their lives, losing their valuable livestock. The youth believe in change. We are getting cooperation. We have made disaster tolerant homes in the southern region. It takes Tk 600,000 to make a double-storey house. During times of calamity, the livestock can be kept in the ground floor of these houses. A few families from near around can also take shelter here. We have named these houses, ‘Amar Ghar, Amar Shelter’ (‘Our Home, Our Shelter’).

How is the coordination between government and non-government organisations in the climate change issue?

Asif Saleh: There is a lot of work we will have to do together. This calls for extensive understanding with the government. There was a time when the countries of the North would say that temperatures must not rise by more than 1.5 degrees. That is our target too. It was becoming difficult to explain to them that to achieve this target, adaptation must first be carried out. The developed countries would ask, where are your plans? What will we fund? Then the countries drew up plans. The plans were ready in three or four years. There is the National Adaptation Plan and the Mujib Prosperity Plan in the country. Now projects must be made to implement these plans. There has not been much progress in that direction. There has been discussion on loss and damages. But that is disaster-related compensation and the amount is not much. There is USD 700 million to USD 800 million allocated. A total of USD 40 billion went to Pakistan jut for one flood. Sunamganj faced USD one billion dollars in losses with one flood.

Are the government and non-government orgaisations not speaking in the same voice?

Asif Saleh: Coordination has not begun to that extent. It has to be seen whether that has happened even within the government itself. There is a need for cooperation among all – agriculture, fisheries, water resources, environment, climate, all areas. We need to take up a ‘one government approach’ now. It will be a problem if everyone takes up different projects on the same issue.

COP28 concluded recently. Many attended from Bangladesh, including you all. What did we get from there?

Asif Saleh: The actual matter of COP is discussions on bargaining. Then again, some important issues are settled before COP. Our government needs to be more active in that area. But thanks must certainly go to Saber Hossain Chowdhury. He was very active. There has been good progress in two areas. There was talk on implementing the commitments on loss and damage, and the countries reached a consensus on moving away from fossil fuels. There is no very strong initiative regarding adaptation. There had been a commitment of USD 100 billion for adaptation, but that was not provided. The developed countries release only three per cent of this. Many loans were also shown as funds. It must be seen how much allocation has been committed, how much has been released, and if this is being properly utilized in the country. But there was a lot of talk about adaptation this time. We can hope that perhaps something will happen now.