Moju Choudhary Haat, Bangladesh: Shahida Begum’s family lost their land along Bangladesh’s river delta so long ago that none of their families can remember life on land.
The 30-year-old Begum told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: “I was born on a boat on the river like my father and grandfather. I have heard that after we lost our land and house in the river Meghna, we started living on boats.
Today, the entire community of Begum – called the Manta people – live on small boats on the country’s two major rivers. It’s a challenging way to survive – but one more Bangladeshis may be inspired to adopt as climate change and sea levels rise https://news.trust.org/item/20210428132934-jsfof Speed Land Erosion.
It is only in death that most manta become permanently ashes – according to Muslim tradition to be buried in mud.
Manta leader Sohrab Manjhi said, ‘We neither throw our dead in the river nor burn them.
“We have to have good relations with those who have at least some land where we can bury our dead.”
Manjhi used to be farmers and fishermen until rising rivers swallowed up their land and forced them to move to the Meghna River and its branch, Tetulia, Majhi explained.
Today, high-speed cyclones, heavy rains and other natural disasters https://news.trust.org/item/20220608102720-79in6 – like the floods earlier this month, which left more than 4.5 million people stranded in the Northeast There were dozens of people killed in Bangladesh – these are manta boats and the income had gone up, he said.
Without a permanent address, most mantas are not eligible for state services. They have demanded the government to give them land on the ground and a national identity card so that their children can go to school.
“There is nothing for us. I want the next generation to be educated and do something for us and our community,” said 58-year-old fisherman Chan Miya.
“We are tired of this life. We want a place where we can live in peace.”
invisible community
More than 30 million people worldwide had to be relocated to their home countries due to natural disasters in 2020, about 4.5 million of them in Bangladesh https://www.internal-displacement.org/database/displacement-data, data shows From the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center in Geneva.
One of the drivers of all that movement is erosion, when heavy, erratic rainfall and floods worsened by climate change eat up river banks, cause rivers to swell and swallow land https://news. . trust.org/item/20220606082445-jmvs3 around them.
According to a report by the Dhaka-based Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services, Bangladesh lost more than 162,000 hectares (400,310 acres) of land between its three largest rivers from 1973 to 2017 – more than twice the size of Singapore.
Gahar Naeem Wahra, director of disaster management and climate change at development organization BRAC, estimates that about 300,000 mantises live on boats across the country – and the numbers are rising.
“They are taking boats as a last resort in order to survive,” said Wahra.
Manjhi, leader of Manta, said the Manta families spend up to 12 hours a day fishing for sale to coastal fish markets or other fishermen.
But live fishing is becoming increasingly difficult, he said, with fish populations declining due to the dominance of commercial fishing, as well as overfishing due to rising populations.
In every dry season, Manta families have to keep up with the receding river water and fish, which means they never stay in one place for more than three months.
Manjhi said that this constant movement contributes to him becoming invisible to the government.
“We have been denied our basic rights like food, shelter, education and this continues from generation to generation. We are in the shadow of civilization,” he said.
‘This hard life’
Living on boats also makes the community more vulnerable to frequent and violent storms https://news.trust.org/item/20211210172114-jl8fg.
Ratna Akhtar, 21, recalled the time she and her husband drowned in a river to save their 4-year-old son, who had collapsed when the family was fishing during heavy rains.
“We were able to catch him, but by then our boat had gone too far from us. We tried to swim along the river, but our energy was failing,” said the actor.
When their leg got caught in their long fishing net, they escaped, after which they went back to their boat.
Mohamed, president of the River and Delta Research Center, a local non-profit, said while climate experts have warned that extreme weather events will only get worse, Bangladesh cannot ignore the growing number of people whose lives are increasing. being destroyed by rivers. Ijaz said. -Government group.
“River erosion is not a short-term phenomenon,” he said.
Ejaz said the government should focus on ensuring that the affected communities can come back quickly to earn money to lend their support.
Nurul Islam Patwari, deputy director of district social services for the Bangladesh government, said his department already has several programs in place to help Manta families improve their living standards, including training in handicrafts such as sewing.
He said that the community members need to get their national identity cards to get help from the state.
“Then, if they approach us about government benefits – including old age allowance, widow allowance – we will help them,” he said.
Over two dozen Manta families have been given homes under the long-running shelter development project – the first step towards an identity card, which has so far provided housing to over 507,000 homeless families.
But some, like 38-year-old Jahanara Begum, have rejected the government’s help because the proposed homes are located too far inland, cutting them off from their livelihoods.
“The house is far from our fishing area, it takes a long time to get there, so we didn’t accept it,” Begum said.
For now, Manta are waiting for a solution that will let them build safer, more stable lives on land – but at the same time stay close enough to rivers.
Born and raised on her family’s boat on the river Meghna, 28-year-old Asma Bano said, “I don’t want to be in the water anymore. My children have no future here.”
“If my children can be educated, they will at least get rid of this difficult life,” she said.