Koichi Usami

CLIMATE CHANGE AND PREPAREDNESS AT THE VILLAGE LEVEL IN COASTAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH

This study assessed people’s perception of climate change and their preparedness at the village level to cope with the disaster in coastal areas of Bangladesh. Data were collected from stratified randomly selected 500 landless, small, medium & large landowners in purposively selected 10 coastal villages of 5 districts. It is revealed that majority of the people understand the past and future climate change impacts on their livelihoods and habitats while don’t have the apprehension confidently of Sea Level Rise (SLR) in future. They are not prepared at the village level to cope with the climate change impacts. The common interventions mentioned by both people’s bottom-up and government’s top-down prescriptions for coping with climate change impacts are “heights and sluice gates of existing barrages/polders should be increased and new long barrages with adequate heights and sluice gates should be constructed”; “number and size of cyclone shelter centers should be increased”; “various measures including use of cement-blocks should be increased for protecting riverbanks from erosion”; “salinity tolerant rice varieties and fish species should be innovated and replicated in the coastal area”; “pure drinking-water sources should be installed in the coastal belt”; and “forestation along the coastal belt should be accelerated”. The unique interventions mentioned by people’s bottom-up prescription for coping with climate change impacts are “high lands may be created to be used by people in various purposes during emergency”; “canals of limited use to people should be closed at their ends”; “coastal area friendly industrialization should be patronized”; “professional skill development training should be strengthened”; “non-farming income generating opportunity should be increased”; “hospitals should be established in the coastal belt”; and “educational institutions should be established on sufficiently raised lands”. 1 Visiting Research Fellow, Graduate School of International Development (GSID), Nagoya University, Japan and Director, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Bangladesh 2 Professor, GSID, Nagoya University, Japan 3 Director General, BARD, Bangladesh 4 Director, BARD, Bangladesh 2 Therefore, the study principally recommends, as alternative to constructing thousands of new cyclone shelter centers, long barrage and polders, to establish cluster villages of multistoried buildings surrounded by deep green belt of trees along the coastal belt for a reasonable number of landless and small landowners on land raised up to the estimated safe level by gathering soil from silted riverbed and seabed. Medium and large landowners should be motivated by GOs and NGOs to construct multistoried buildings by use of the long-term loan with low interest rate and installment from commercial banks, GOs and NGOs. This intervention is to safe the coastal people’s habitats and to discourage their migration during SLR, cyclones, floods, and tidal surges due to climate change.