The hostile weather is nothing new to Bangladesh.
Seasonal rains and tropical storms hit its low-line coast
and flooded many waterways annually.
But as temperatures rise worldwide,
our weather is becoming more volatile,
and nowhere is that felt harder than Bangladesh.
A country being battered so fiercely
by the effects of climate change
that their existence is under threat right now.
Bangladesh has been forced to take extreme measures
to survive its battle against climate change.
But will it be enough?
I've traveled halfway around the world,
this time to Bangladesh.
I'm on the southern tip of Bola Island,
where the land ends and the Bay of Bengal begins.
And of course, I'm traveling in the monsoon,
the heaviest part of the rainy season.
The sky has opened up and it is up and down in buckets.
About 80% of Bangladesh's yearly rainfall
occurs during monsoon season,
which lasts from June to October.
By the end, almost one-third of the country is underwater.
And now, climate change is making the rains
more unpredictable and intense.
Rain is pretty hard, isn't it?
Why, say, say!
I'm joined by translator and guide Rizul Huk.
I'm totally ready to cope with the rains.
Bangladesh receives 80 inches of rain per year,
making it one of the wettest places on Earth.
Bangladesh is a country that has been shaped by water.
The entire country is basically a river delta.
It's criss-crossed by 700 rivers
and innumerable streams and tributaries.
Meltwaters from the mountain ranges in the north
flow into the lowlands below,
where they reach the largest bay in the world,
the Bay of Bengal.
80% of the country is low-lying,
with much of the coastal region
just over three feet above sea level.
The land is made up of silt,
a soft mixture of sand and sediment,
making it prone to flooding and erosion.
Whoa, very difficult to walk in.
This fine silt has been deposited here.
Some of it local, some of it will even come all the way
from the glaciated areas of the Himalayas,
thousands of miles to the north.
As a result, the land here is very fertile,
but also very fragile.
As climate change takes hold,
more water is flowing down from the mountain tops.
Riverbanks are swelling, making tides more dangerous,
all of which are hitting the shores of Bangladesh hard.
We're losing a lot of the land to the water.
Bangladesh is a country that might very well be disappearing
right in front of our eyes.
The effects of erosion can be seen everywhere.
We can see almost a sharp knife edge
where the riverbank has just been slowly carved away.
Every high tide, a little more goes out.
Every storm, a little more goes out.
Deroted back right to the edge of the road.
(speaking in foreign language)
His name is "Mamat Agbaralizana."
He has been living here for 19 years.
- 19 years.
- When he settled here first time,
his house was 20 feet from here.
- That's where the house used to be.
- Yeah, 20 feet that way.
- And it just keeps having to move it back.
- Yeah, it's moving back towards the road.
A large population and lack of space
means thousands of people are forced to live
in these exposed places.
Alomjir Hussein is a climate change specialist
from the UN Bangladesh Development Program.
- We have 19 coastal districts
and roughly 60 million people lives here.
A recent study shows that if the sea level rises
by 80 centimeter and if there is no action,
then at least Bangladesh will lose
around 70 percent of its land mass.
If I only consider the coastal part of Bangladesh,
then roughly around 80 percent
of the coastal arable land will be gone.
- With seas predicted to rise between 30 to 80 inches
by the end of the century, it's a very real threat.
Already the sea is encroaching
and you can see how the locals are desperately trying
to hold back the water.
- As they put up these wooden protection barriers
along the river bank,
and it's basically a last ditch desperate attempt
to keep what remaining land they have
from falling into the river.
It seems to be working for now,
but I don't think it's gonna hold for too many more years.
- As sea levels continue to rise,
protecting the coast and its communities
is key to this country's survival.
And nowhere is this more important
than the Sundarban's region,
which has the largest mangrove forest in the world.
Heading west to see Bangladesh's best natural protection
against sea level rise in storm surges.
The Sundarban's covers 4,000 square miles.
60 percent is in Bangladesh and 40 percent in India.
It's home to over 500 species of animals,
including the endangered Bengal tiger.
- All morning, I've been seeing different fishermen
set up with their boats in the middle of the river.
- The area is rich in natural resources,
like fish, providing a livelihood
for the three million people who live
in the surrounding communities.
We head deep into the jungle.
- We've taken the boat out early 5.30 this morning,
gone upstream a bit, and now we're just letting it.
The current take us downstream very quietly.
There's this strange glowing orb in the sky
that I haven't seen many, many days.
- The sun has actually decided to make an appearance.
- This vast forest provides an important natural protection
to the coast of Bangladesh.
Mangrove trees can grow in salt water
and low oxygen soil.
Their dense root system helps stabilize the coastline
and reduces erosion and damage from waves and storms.
But now increased erosion throughout the region
is causing unsustainable amounts of sediment
and silt to enter the waterways
that flow through the forest.
- The protective mangrove trees are suffocating.
Dr. Khan tells me why.
- These creeks are like blood vessels,
and the problem is because of the continuous siltation,
these creeks are silted out,
and once the creeks are silted,
though all the mangrove roots are blocked,
and these are the breathing organs for mangrove plants.
Roots are blocked, they cannot breathe, so they die.
- 200 years ago, the sunner bonds measured
about 6,400 square miles.
Now, it's down to a third of its original size.
Of course, this loss of habitat
is having a big impact on the animals that live here.
The tiger population has drastically shrunk by 40%
in only 10 years.
- So there are actually a lot fewer tigers
than was originally thought.
That's not a very big population
between 100 and 200 individuals.
- No, it's not a big population.
If the tiger is gone,
there will be too many deer,
and they will graze all the seedlings.
That's why there will be no region addition.
That will be catastrophic even.
That will be from the apex to the bottom.
- Saving the mangrove forest and the creatures that live in it
is essential because without it,
a huge chunk of the Bangladesh coast
will be rapidly swallowed by the sea.
Hundreds of animal species won't survive,
and millions of people will be displaced.
But erosion and rising sea levels
are not the only climate-related issue threatening Bangladesh.
The monster cyclones that blow through every year
bring a whole other level of destruction.
Bangladesh is a country battered by fierce weather
that sweeps in across the Bay of Bengal.
Cyclones season blasts from August to November
bringing massive storms.
But now, as climate change takes hold,
they're getting more fierce and unpredictable.
Cyclones are what we would call hurricanes.
The people that live here are about as vulnerable
to these massive cyclones as anyone in the world.
It's hard to imagine a population
of people more exposed to the elements.
Cyclones are a product of heat and moisture.
They form in the warm Indian Ocean
just before and after monsoon season.
As climate change warms the sea,
cyclones and tropical storms get worse.
The damage from past storms can be seen everywhere
as I travel to meet those affected by the extreme weather here.
The spot I'm visiting today is Charfissan Orphanage.
70 boys make this place their home.
Shirajul Islam is the director of the Orphanage.
What were the circumstances
that caused the Orphanage to be formed in the first place?
The Orphanage is established after a cyclone in 1970.
More than 300,000 people died in this area.
The 1970 Boila cyclone was the deadliest tropical storm
in history with a storm surge of up to 30 feet.
And since then, globally, the number of cyclones has tripled.
Here in Bangladesh, hundreds of people
are killed each year by storms.
Most of these students are lost at their father in the Bay of Bengal.
So most of their fathers were fishermen.
Yeah, fishermen.
The country has been hit by 10 cyclones in 16 years.
The last one was in 2007,
when cyclones sider tore through the south devastating communities.
It also coincided with some of the worst monsoon flooding
the country had seen.
What would you do with the orphans, with the boys,
if a cyclone was coming two days from now?
We have one building.
Our boys can take shelter in there.
There are cyclone shelters all over the country now,
and they've drastically reduced deaths from storms.
In spite of the hardship they've faced,
the future for these kids is optimistic.
Our boys are doing good results.
So they are doing hard work.
And our boys are loving the openings that they can play.
So they have a good place to stay.
They make friends, they get educated
to better themselves that they can now get good jobs.
Every year, the seasons bring tremendous change
to the landscape here.
And as we move forward,
those changes are gonna become more and more drastic.
As climate change continues to creep on
and have its effect here in Bangladesh.
One place where these changes are incredibly apparent
is the village of Kukrimukri,
where a project is underway to save homes
and livelihoods from the damage caused by climate change.
Here, storm surges regularly wash away houses,
flood farmlands, and render crops useless
because of saltwater intrusion.
When salinity includes, you know,
the agricultural production of Bangladesh
significantly will impact.
One other major challenge associated with salinity intrusion
is right now with availability of fresh water,
and fresh water for drinking.
You know, Bangladesh is called a land of rivers.
Water is everywhere, but right now in Bangladesh,
still around 20 million people in the coastal belt
is suffering from crisis of drinking water.
Alamjir takes me around the village
to see what they're doing about it.
So does the embankment is here?
Yeah, this is the embankment here.
From 14 kilometers long.
This is on that side.
In order to protect themselves,
a thick embankment made from mud
has been built all around the community
with the help of the UN.
So I could follow this embankment now,
all the way around the perimeter of the island for 14 kilometers.
14 kilometers, 14 kilometers, you can.
Yes, that's right.
There's two years back, nothing else here.
It provides a wall of protection
from saltwater intrusion and storm surges 10 feet high.
Ponds have been dug to collect the rainwater
during the monsoon.
Yeah, so this acts as a fresh water result,
but this water can be, you know, purified
through their very simple techniques.
This land normally would not have been very useful,
but now there are fish in the pond
and there's vegetable gardens all the way ringing around.
There are 10 similar projects across the south,
but for many along the coast,
the flooding can't be stopped and they're forced to flee.
Thousands of displaced Bangladeshis head to Dhaka every year
and the mass influx is creating an entirely new crisis.
Dhaka, the crowded capital of Bangladesh,
were according to the NGO Coastal Watch,
every hour, another 11 Bangladeshis arrive
after losing their homes to rising seeds.
It's a global problem.
Experts predict that by 2050,
250 million people worldwide
will be forced to move due to the effects of climate change.
10% will be in Bangladesh.
There are some studies going on really to find out
climate-induced migration.
They can't really afford to have a sustainable livelihood,
so they're moving out.
The population of Dhaka is exploding.
There are 14 million people crowded into 180 square miles,
making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
The city's infrastructure can't keep up.
We hail a rickshaw to go and see how the people
hardest hit by climate change live.
With so many people in Dhaka, jobs are scarce,
and many earn just $2 a day pulling rickshaws.
For the low-income people, they can pull the rickshaw
and they can't make some money.
Many of them live in the poor neighborhoods,
like the one I'm being taken to.
This part of Dhaka is known as the Bola Slum,
and it's named after the island of Bola,
where most of these people who live here
have relocated from.
It was originally built for people left homeless
by the devastating 1970s cyclone,
but now it also houses people who have simply lost their land
from the encroaching sea.
This place is totally a labyrinth.
It's the definition of hardship.
There's only one electricity supply
and very little clean running water.
This is what life is like for 3 million people living in Dhaka.
It's kind of heartbreaking to see because so many families
live in just such terrible, poor conditions here.
A lot of these people don't have a lot of choice,
but to come to places like this.
Even though Dhaka isn't on the coast,
it's surrounded by water and extremely vulnerable
to the effects of monsoon rains.
And the more that falls, the harder life becomes.
I find my way to the home of the Kashum family,
who fled Bola 16 years ago.
Now they live next to the city's drainage canal,
which regularly overflows in the rain.
This is the wall of Dhaka water sanitary system.
There's the pumping system end of this canal.
In Kalysh, they have the pumping system.
So this area almost go underwater every year.
Yeah, on the other side of the wall.
And then come inside.
Water level goes up to that mark.
You see it, George?
They were flooded and this area was submerged
and on for 11 days, makes them once.
Even in here, people can't escape the ravages of climate change.
Monsoon rains become as intense as predicted.
Dhaka won't be a safe refuge for long.
I leave, and as I head to the port of Dhaka,
my journey is slowed down, not by the weather,
but by celebration.
Bangladesh has the fourth largest Muslim population in the world,
and is also the third largest Hindu state.
Monsoon season coincides with important festivals for both faiths.
It's the end of Ramadan here,
and you can hear the prayer call in the background.
This city is bustling right now.
And in the Hindu neighborhood,
they're celebrating the Rock Yatra festival.
It is one of the biggest festivals in the Hindu calendar.
And boy, do the Bangladeshi's know how to celebrate.
These thousands of people, we've all come together.
And we're pulling the jar into the street.
The festival is an ode to Jagannath,
or Jagannath, which means unstoppable force.
Not unlike the monsoon.
Not like the Jagannath, the unstoppable force.
Not there, not there, not there, not there.
It's about to be a little bit more sustainable force.
Come on, sir.
But the revelers don't let that stop them.
Hooked on a wire.
I hope that's not my voltage.
Once unhooked, the chariot temple is pulled to its final destination.
This is here, the chariot is going to come.
He's going to sit here for a week.
The Jagannath statues are carried through the crowd of devotees
to the local temple.
That was a world-class grade and a sensory overload.
The honor looked in here.
Just loved it.
And we got some monsoon rain.
As the heavens open, it's clear to me that the Bangladeshi people
are used to persevering in the face of extreme weather.
With that in mind, I head north.
Resilience and adaptability are two terms
that I would definitely use to describe the people that live here.
I'm discovering as the flooding here gets worse,
Bangladeshi's are finding increasingly more innovative ways of adapting.
I've traveled to the north to Pabna to visit an inspirational education program.
So what do you do if you live in a remote rural part of the country that floods regularly?
You've got kids, you need to send them to school.
Well, you improvise and innovate.
Here, they've come up with the idea of floating schools.
In 1998, the first floating school was founded to help the children
who were missing out on final education as schools were frequently flooded.
I meet the program's manager, super-crash-pal.
They started with one boat, but now have a fleet of 39.
There are 22 school boats, 10 library boats, and seven adult education centers.
Here in the library boat, we've got all kinds of books for all different ages.
We've even got a couple of computers up in the front, run by solar power,
so it can be operating pretty much anywhere.
It's a pretty cool setup.
70,000 kids have benefited from this project,
but it's not just classrooms that are floating.
Many farms have also been erected above the water.
We've got a garden with vegetables, we've got ducks
that they keep here for, of course, their eggs and for meat.
Being self-sufficient is vital for survival.
And in each of these ponds, there's fish that they're growing.
Clear to me is that the people of Bangladesh have a remarkable character
when confronted by extreme weather.
From building schools out on the water to finding new ways to grow crops
in an ever-increasing environment of unpredictability.
As our climate continues to change and the weather becomes more severe,
Bangladesh is a country to watch.
It's facing the most extreme repercussions of climate change,
from severe flooding and erosion to mass displacement.
Things we could see across the globe if immediate action is not taken
to combat climate change.
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