Dipty Linda And James Pender are Advisors with The Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme. They are providing us with a direct view of the effects of climate change from Bangladesh. This is the second part of their unique viewpoint.
So on my return to Bangladesh in 2006 the moderator of the church gave me the task of looking into how climate change would affect the poor people that the church seeks to serve through its development programme. Some of the results have been published in the report Bangladesh and Climate Change.
Unfortunately my findings arenot very encouraging CBSDP’s projects in north-west (Rajshahi), west (Meherpur) and central (Modhupur) Bangladesh are becoming increasingly drought prone; its projects in Dhaka, Barisal and Gopalganj Districts in the south are suffering from increasingly devastating floods; while communities on the coast are becoming threatened for their very survival.
I visited such a community on the coast quite near to where the Church of Bangladesh has one of its congregations near to the city of Khulna during a field trip from the 3rd International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change which was quite heartbreaking: In the twin villages of Kolotola and Amtola as sea level rises and water flowing down the rivers in the dry season gets less, water supplies, and even the soil is becoming salty. This means that they can no longer grow vegetables and rice harvests are getting less and less, while they have to travel 6km for drinking water in the dry season from a pond where the water isn’t ‘good’ but at least not so much salt to make it undrinkable. If this wasn’t bad enough the reduction in dry season freshwater is reducing the productivity of the nearby Sundarbans (the largest mangrove forest in the world, containing Bengal Tigers) on which people traditionally relied for building materials, medicinal plants, and firewood, as well as reducing the amount of fish in the river during the dry season. Worst of all plenty of water in the river with its strong currents in the wet season, means the river is meandering towards the village at a rate of about 2 feet per year. Natural processes are involved but with the effects of climate change making them worse it cannot truly be called a ‘natural disaster’ in the making. When I asked Rattan the young man I was talking to what he would do when the river claimed his home? He simply shrugged his shoulders saying: “I will have nowhere to move to here, I guess I will just have to go to Dhaka city and try and find some work there”.
In rural Meherpur a long way from the coast, effects of climate change may be less dramatic but are none the less insidious, as we talked to village women in Govipur with Neil a visiting Methodist Minister, they showed that although of limited education and from simple farming families, they were in fact wise and insightful with their answers and clearly ladies who could read the ‘signs of the times’. New weather patterns that were affecting the crops their families were growing included: Fruits coming earlier, harvests latter, the hotter season was now longer, heavy rains were commoner, storms were now devastating crops, as well as longer periods of thicker fog. This was serious trouble for these farming families as these changes threatens their livelihoods; for example fog damaged wheat by encouraging fungal disease, and killed flowers of valuable litchi and mango trees reducing fruit harvests. When Rev. Neil asked the women what message they wanted him to take back to the UK these humble but confident ladies stated their message clearly and concisely: “People there should stop pollution, look after the environment and stop emitting greenhouse gases; for Western countries are increasing greenhouse gases but it is we in Bangladesh that are suffering!”
Sir John Houghton Chair or Co-chair of the Scientific Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) between 1988-2002 reminds us of words of Jesus spoken after he had told the parable contrasting the faithful and unfaithful stewards: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). The challenge to our Christian churches and the opportunities with which they are presented are unmistakeable”. As former US Vice-President Al Gore, stated in his Noble Prize winning film Inconvenient Truth: “If you believe in prayer, pray that people will find the strength to change (in response to climate change)” and then he quoted an African proverb: ‘When you pray move your feet’!
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