As their lands, livelihoods and homes are gradually enveloped by rising waters, char dwellers in Bangladesh are already bearing the brunt of climatic changes; their lives have become as uncertain as the temperamental shoals they call home.

text SAAD HAMMADI photos by ANDREW BIRAJ

Azim Uddin
   Resident of Char Kauabada
   Azim Uddin has paid the greatest price a man can pay to the devastating floods that inundated his home in the heart of the Jamuna River. In 2005, the river claimed his youngest son, who slipped in during the floods. ‘We found him an hour later when he floated downstream,’ he says. ‘That year’s flood was so grave and intense that if someone had died in Kauabada char there would have been no space to bury him.’
   ‘It is an uncertain lifestyle,’ he says as he describes the char that is his home; over the last seven years, it has developed significantly, but is still in danger of going underwater again.
   ‘We had lived on char Kauabada about ten years before it went under water seven years ago. We had to move to another char (Krishnamoni), and three years later we moved back to Kauabada when it developed again.’
   Every time a char is hit by flooding, or becomes uninhabitable due to river erosion, the occupants have no option but to move to another char. In many cases, their houses and valuables are destroyed, and they have to start anew.
   ‘I have had to rebuild my house about 10 or 15 times since I was ten. The river is so close to my present house, I fear it will not exist when the river begins to erode again. The water came up to our waists during the floods this year, but we still stayed on.’ Azim fears that, by next March (the Bengali month of Chaitra), he has to shift his house a few yards further inland since the river is eroding so fast.
   In his tin-shed house, Azim has a disaster preparation guideline posted on wall. Seasonal changes bring in unpredictable weather conditions, be it summer, monsoon or winter, every season has extreme effects in this part of Gaibandha.

Halima Begum
   Resident of Kamarjani, Goghat
   Halima Begum's family has been living in Kamarjani char of Gaibandha from even before the devastating flood of 1988. Their house was on lower ground compared to the raised ones being built today. 'Gana Unnayan Kendra provided us with coconut, guava, jackfruit, mango and a few other types of trees, as well as raising our land,' says Halima.
   'Every time the floods hit, the water would reach waist height. Three years ago GUK raised our land and fenced the mud and wattle houses with grass,' says Halima. 'The grasses have been planted so that the raised and sloped soil does not flatten.'
   'During this year's flood, our area had knee-high water, but my house was safe. I even sheltered people and their livestock in my small home,' says her husband Abdur Rahman.

Hazrat Ali
   Resident of Char Chowmohan
   Five years ago Hazrat Ali used to pull a rickshaw in Dhaka, but because of physical weakness, he returned home to live with his family and survive through work as a day labourer. In his opinion, every char inhabitant is well acquainted with the dangers of climate change, having lost close ones and becoming homeless with every flood.
   In this year alone, Hazrat has had to rebuild his house three times in the aftermath of flooding; it has been at least 25 times that he has had to rebuild over the course of his life on the char.
   ‘As I remember, my family initially lived in Gopinath char, on the eastern side of Kauabada. We lived there for about five years, till1988 when I was about 22; we had to rebuild that house four times. Only when the char had completely sunk did we move to char Krishnamoni.’
   In recent times, Gopinath char has floated back again. After about three years’ stay in Krishnamoni, it too was claimed by rising waters, and Hazrat moved again to char Chowmohan, on the same land as Kauabada. It was another five years till this char too drowned underwater, and he moved back to char Krishnamoni, before it too was lost a few years later; Hazrat moved his family to char Chowmohan in 2002, and has been living there since. But life here is also uncertain, as erosion is constantly claiming much of the land area.
   It had been only three months after he moved his house a mile inland to escape the effects of erosion that it too was lost to flooding. ‘I could not even retrieve the thatched walls of my house to remake it in a different location,’ he says disappointedly.
   ‘Having lost my house in floods last year, we sought refuge in the flood shelter, which itself is in danger of collapsing as it stands immediately next to the river,’ he says. ‘Only a fenced roof is now there on its top, with its foundations being destroyed by the river erosion.’
   ‘Even for the most basic medication or treatment we have to go all the way to the Gaibandha city.’ Hazrat’s wife had suffered waterborne disease during the recent floods, and only survived because she was hurried to the city hospital for treatment.

Abdur Rashid
   Resident of Char Shannyashi
   Sixty-five year old Abdur Rashid and his family of 19 have seen the worst of life on chars, having had to cope with starvation, malnutrition and unemployment. Rashid, now aged and suffering from paralysis, has spent much of his life moving from char to char.
   ‘I have been living in char Shannyashi for about a year now,’ says Rashid. Having no property of his own anymore, Rashid has been moving from one char to another to find shelter every time the river has claimed his mud and wicker house.
   Even 10 years ago, Rashid’s family had a stable life. He owned buffalos, cows, some farming lands and a house of his own. But after erosion and floods took away his land and home, he had to sell his livestock to support his family. Since then, his family has been on the move, with no permanent home.
   For a family of more than 19, with only one of his sons living with him and working as a day labourer, the family earns a little over Tk 100 a day. On days when there is money to be earned, they have their meals, otherwise, they go without.
   ‘The government has never paid a visit here,’ says Rashid. Living in the middle of the Jamuna River, he doubts if government even knows they exist.

Habibur Rahman
   Resident of Char Gopinath
   ‘Natural calamities have made us refugees of climate change,’ says Habibur Rahman. ‘Having been born on the sandbank, changing homes has been part of our lives. We have lived throughout the shores of the Jamuna from my childhood; it’s been 3 months since we were forced to take shelter in another house in the north side of Gopinath.
   Habibur’s family is all busy preparing their thatched house on the sand piled up by a local NGO. The NGO has raised the heights of 15 houses in a row in Gopinath. The sloped sandbanks on which the houses are being built will be fenced with grasses so that water does not flatten the soil.
   ‘Our house has been heightened with sand to save it from river erosion, but it will require concrete embankments to be permanently protected.’
   Gopinath char has developed once again this year after about five years of being uninhabitable. ‘My three-year-old nephew, Shah Alamgir, drowned three months ago during the floods,’ he says. ‘Our livestock died too in the last flood.’
   After having starved for three days, local NGOs came forward with relief. ‘With no roof and no fence, we had to live under the open sky with a family of eight.’