Living in fear of flooding
In order to survive the harsh conditions of the intertidal zone, mangrove trees developed a complex root system to survive saltwater and waves. Mudskippers can breathe through the skin, unusual in fish, which allows them to traverse the foreshore. A myriad of species of plants and animals have adapted to intertidal life. Humans are not among them. Yet in Cox's Bazar district an increasing number of coastal dwellers are finding that the intertidal zone is precisely where they live.
In Dalghata and Matarbari, two unions of Moheshkhali Island, not only tidal surges caused by storms and cyclones but regular high tides inundate the homes of several thousand people. The situation is especially intolerable during the monsoon.
“Locally, the 1991 cyclone caused thousands of deaths due to the lack of embankment protection,” says Matarbari's newly-elected Chairman Mohammad Ullah.
“Still now, more than two decades later, no sustainable, permanent embankment exists. Tides inundate low-lying areas every day.”
Neighbouring Dhalgata's Chairman Ahsan Ullah says 40,000 people in his union spend anxious days due to the lack of functional embankments.
“Planned, high embankments are urgently needed. The whole union risks being devoured by the sea.”
According to Ahsan Ullah, written appeals for permanent embankments were made to the upazila nirbahi officer, Water Development Board (WDB) and the district deputy commissioner, to no avail.
While technically there are 20 kilometres of WDB embankment in the two unions, a 17-kilometre stretch has been in a damaged condition since 1991. According to locals, if the embankment is not repaired before this year's monsoon, 16 villages will be governed by tides.
Mujibur Rahman of Matarbari's Sairardail village was once a wealthy salt producer. “A few years ago,” he says, “my land was submerged by seawater.” He faces grave financial hardship now.
Mamunur Rashid, a small-scale farmer of nearby Moghdail village, has lost his home to tidal water following embankment erosion, a plight he shares with retired school teacher Abdul Mannan of Satmara Dail village in Dhalgata, who had to build a new home on public land.
On Kutubdia Island to the north, the situation is equally dire. Of the 40-kilometre embankment supposed to protect lives and property, 12 kilometres no longer exist and eight kilometres seriously damaged. The king tide on April 25, 2016 submerged six villages.
“I couldn't plant crops for the last two seasons because of tidal inundation,” says farmer Kamal Hossain of Kutubdia's Kaiser Para village.
“About 5,000 acres of cropland cannot be cultivated due to the lack of embankment in Char Dhurung and Kaiser Para,” says local madrasa teacher Shafiul Morshed Chowdhury.
The island's upazila Chairman ATM Nurul Bashar Chowdhury describes the condition of the embankments as pitiable. Some 50,000 people are living in fear, he says.
“I implore the authorities to rebuild our damaged embankments as a matter of the utmost urgency.”
In Sabrang union of Teknaf upazila in the district's far south, most embankments nowadays lie under the seawater. The homes of around 20,000 people are tide-affected; the main road from Teknaf town to Shahparir Dwip is cut, underwater and unrepaired, for the past three years.
Embankment crises can be found in all coastal upazilas of the district. It leaves several lakh coastal dwellers at the mercy of the sea. Without action they face an even bleaker future, with climate change set to exacerbate the frequency and severity of storms.
Cox's Bazar-based WDB Executive Engineer Sabibur Rahman says there are 595 kilometres of embankment in Cox's Bazar, of which around 300 kilometres embank the Bay of Bengal.
“Most coastal embankments are damaged,” he says.
In June 2015, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved Tk 259.76 crore for rehabilitation of 64 kilometres of damaged embankments in the district. So far, only Tk 1.5 crore has been allocated.
“Work on the remaining targeted embankments will commence next fiscal year,” says Sabibur Rahman. He notes a proposal worth Tk 106 crore to build a 2.5 kilometre permanent embankment in Shahparir Dwip will be presented at the upcoming Ecnec meeting.
On May 21 when Cyclone Roanu battered the district, 7 kilometres of an existing embankment were obliterated; a further 18 kilometres partially damaged.
Tidal water breached embankments in several areas of Kutubdia, Moheshkhali and Pekua upazilas, severely damaging at least 1,000 homes.
Two days later when Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury visited the affected areas, he directed that repair works should begin as soon as water subsides.
Both emergency works and budgeted improvements will bring welcome relief to district residents, who have not seen significant embankment works for around 26 years.
Until such works are completed, many will continue to live in fear, several thousand effectively within the intertidal zone.
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