Insuring disaster-prone coastal people

The country's sea coast, running parallel to the Bay of Bengal, has long been subjected to nature's wrath with millions of its people facing an uncertain future in terms of their lives and livelihoods. Coastal belt stretches along the southern landmarks of the country that meet the Bay of Bengal with about 44 million inhabitants. By 2015, they would be the most vulnerable to impact of climate change in 19 districts of the country, a World Bank study said.  Already they are one of the most vulnerable communities in the world. In the south, they face the sea that yields resources necessary for making a living for them. A huge number of people are involved with and depend on fishing.
 Over the last decades, the government has invested more than $10 billion to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters. Measures like strengthening river embankments, building emergency cyclone shelters and developing world class community-based early warning system have significantly reduced the loss of life and livelihoods and damage to property caused by extreme weather. Among these, a World Bank-funded project has made a headway in ensuring resilient livelihoods and disaster preparedness. The project has significantly improved socio-economic status of the country's coastal people. Success of the WB project has largely been attributed to strict monitoring and supervision.
However climate change is causing increasing sufferings for people on account of adverse impacts such as flood, drought, salinity increase, heat wave, cold wave and long lasting effects of cyclone with more frequency and intensity. Sea level rise, shrinking sweet water source from the upstream, and storm surge along the coast, for example Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009, have been aggravating the situation of salinity ingression, threatening agriculture, food security and bio-diversity. People previously engaged in agriculture are now left landless or owners of infertile land. So they are forced to switch over to other professions. As saline lands do not support rice or other crops, those  are sold to rich people who convert them into shrimp enclosure. Shrimp culture is shrinking livelihoods as it requires relatively less labour than agriculture. As a result, jobless people migrate to nearby cities for work and livelihoods which ultimately add to urban poverty, especially in Dhaka. Climate change has even been destabilising the dynamics of population change and this warrants establishing coordination among different policies and projects. The authorities need to frame a long-term strategy to save the coastal people's lives and livelihoods.
Special efforts should also be made to ensure full participation of persons displaced from coastal areas in planning and management of their return or relocation. Currently, there is no comprehensive programme to ensure  return of climate-induced displaced persons to their homes or places of habitual residence, nor to facilitate their relocation to other parts of Bangladesh. Experiences have shown that there are still many critical livelihood and other challenges to their effective rehabilitation. The government along with the development partners needs to address these burning issues.