30m people in Bangladesh need preferential treatment for migration

Some 10 to 30 million people already displaced by the impacts of climate change in Bangladesh should receive preferential treatment for migration to safer regions.
This was observed by Dr Mark Collins, director of Commonwealth Foundation, in his keynote address on climate change at the conference of Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA).
Apparently well conversant with the situation of Bangladesh, Dr Collins informed the conference that millions of people in that country suffered from the impacts of climate change. Recurring floods, cyclones and river erosion rendered millions of people in Bangladesh.
`Climate change in the Commonwealth: Vulnerability or opportunity' was the theme of discussion at the conference attended by more than 100 delegates from 17 countries.
Dr Collins said inhabitants displaced by climate change should migrate to other regions. Rehabilitation at the same places might again displace them by the calamities that use to revisit.
Migration is not a new phenomenon, he said, mentioning that since ancient times, people displaced by natural calamities had migrated from one place to other for survival.
The Commonwealth official, however, did not name the countries that should offer preferential treatment to displaced Bangladeshis to migrate. But he repeatedly mentioned Bangladesh as one of the countries affected most by the climate change.
Dunstan Chan, a delegate from Sarawak, observed that snows are melting in Iceland and Siberia due to global warming. Those areas will soon turn into breadbaskets. “Displaced Bangladeshis may migrate to those countries,” he suggested.
Shamsuddin Ahmed, a delegate from Bangladesh, narrated the woes of the people from the impacts of the climate change. He said thousands of people in the country are displaced by river erosion every year.
Cyclones take a heavy toll of human lives, wash away houses, and cause enormous damages to the infrastructure. The floods result in heavy loss of food crops.
He further informed that natural flow of the river Ganges was blocked by the Farakka Barrage in the upstream in India. The result, a vast area of arable land turned into desert. In winter, water level in the rivers comes down giving inroads to saline water from the sea to the mainland affecting the life and living.
Decline in ground water level also raised the problem of arsenic in tubewell water, he added.
Shamsuddin told the conference that a water conference in Kathmandu few years ago expressed apprehension that dispute over sharing of the Ganges water might lead to a war.
Dr Collins acknowledged the security risk over sharing of the common rivers in the sub-continent. He said the negotiators should realise that none of the parties would gain in the event of any clash.
Referring to Dr Collins' idea of migration of displaced Bangladeshis, the Bangladesh delegate said the situation was going bad to worse. Hundreds of young men are on long queues every day seeking to go abroad in search of job.