Climate refugees, 2007
In the past ten years, farmers like Hatem Ali have had to dismantle and relocate their tin and bamboo houses at least five times to escape the invasive waters of the huge Brahmaputra River in Kurigram. This river is swollen by severe monsoons that scientists attribute to global warming and melting ice in the Himalayas. Bangladesh, with its population of 140 million people piled into one region, is one of the most vulnerable targets of global warming.
Some have to live with the memory of losing control of their child as he is swept away by the furious tidal waves when the Sidr awakens; some can still visualize their lost harvest swinging in fields now bare, while others have the traces of their dried tears on their cheeks as they remember their own piece of land swallowed by the fury of the river.
Once happy villagers, they are now climate refugees.
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