University of Dhaka

Department of Public Administration

Course Tittle: Environment, Disaster and Risk Governance

Course Code: 313

A Review on: An investigation into the major environment and

climate change policy issues in southwest coastal Bangladesh

Submitted to:

Dr. Naznin Islam, Professor

Department of Public Administration

University of Dhaka

Submitted by:

Towhidul Islam, BSS, Fifth Semester

Roll: SS-042-077

Session: 2015-2016

Department of Public Administration

University of Dhaka

Date of Submission: 03-04-2018

Article Reviewed:
Anjan Kumer Dev Roy , (2017),"An investigation into the major environment and climate
change policy issues in southwest coastal Bangladesh ", International Journal of Climate
Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 9 Iss 1 pp. 123 - 136

This research paper tries to analyze the issues of climate change and environment policy gaps
and their impacts on the natural resources and ecosystems in southwest coastal Bangladesh.
The effects of increasing human activities and natural disasters on environment are also
analyzed. Later the policies that can be taken are recommended.

The study area is southwest coastal area covering 12,171 square kilometers of coastal region
and 8.25 percent of the country.

The methodology is used in this study is focus group discussions and workshop. Shyamnagar,
an Upazila in southwest of Bangladesh, was randomly selected for focus group discussion. The
participants selected for focus group are the inhabitants of the Upazila and aged between 30 to
60 years. The area is vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones, tidal surges, storm and
saline water intrusion. 35% of the people do not have dominant livelihood activities and 27 and
7 % people are dependent on agricultural activities and service sector respectively. Most of the
people depend on shrimp culture, crop farming and natural resources of the Sundarbans. Those
who participated in the focus group discussion are mainly dependent on agricultural activities
and manual labor.

In addition to the focus group discussion, a day long workshop is organized to understand micro
level policy gaps’ and impact on livelihoods to national level and environmental and climate
change policy influence. The workshop created an opportunity for stakeholders for sharing their
views. University professors, researchers, government and non-governmental officials,
executives and their representative, civil societies, media personnel, grassroots participants and
development partner were the participants of the workshop. The participants at the workshop
looked at the solution of coordination failure and planning instruments

However, the major finding of the paper is that there is a need for policy intervention in the
wake up environmental changes to tackle environmental problems and reverse the damage
done by the past policy initiatives.

Participants of focus group and workshop expressed their concerns about the effects of climate
change in southwest coastal region. The feedback of focus group discussion and work shop
shows that there is a large number of people migrating from coastal area to cities due to lack of
livelihood opportunities and climate change effects with more frequent disaster.
Frequent disaster forces people to migrate from coastal area. Moreover, reckless behavior of
the rivers in recent years has made the situation worse resulting in increased migration. Shrimp
cultivation increases salinity making it impossible to cultivate and grow crop on which most of
the people are dependent in the area. Water logging is one of the problems created by polders
constructed by Krug Mission under Water Master Plan in 1964 that inundates 106,000 hectares
of land. The Farrakka barrage in the Ganges in India has contributed to the increased salinity by
upstream diversion of water. Salinity increased by 3.02 per cent in past four decades. The
arable land is also reduced causing significant pressure on livelihood of those who are
dependent on agriculture. Different types of trees have been affected by water logging and
increased level of salinity.

The hydrologic regime is totally changed by the construction of sluice gate, plodder and coastal
embankments. The construction of polders have favored shrimp cultivation to crop production
that resulted in ‘inequality, disparity, rice versus shrimp conflict, conflict of power and
privileges, ecological threats and damages, insufficient structure, lack of clarity in
understanding, people’s protest and bloodshed and conflict on saline water breach.”

Many factors are responsible for the salinity of ground water and surface water. Sea water is
the major contributor in this regard. Construction of ponds and infrastructure for shrimp
cultivation is one of the main reasons of intrusion of salinity and water logging and reduction in
cultivatable land. Fish species endangered because of increased salinity in both surface and
ground water.

The participants in the workshop understand what kinds of effects climate change might have
in the following forms:

• the coastal Bangladesh will severely be damaged by frequent tropical cyclones of higher
strength;
• the erratic rainfall will aggravate river bank erosion and will accelerate sedimentation in
river beds leading to drainage congestion and water logging;
• the coastal land that is already at a lower elevation with reference to sea level will
submerge, and saline water intrusion will increase in surface and groundwater due to the
sea level rise;
• such hydrodynamic changes due to climate change will have significant impact on the
Sundarbans and will increase the consequences of the polder systems that have already
been experienced by southwest coastal Bangladesh; and
• displacement of hundreds of thousands of people will take place and forced migration will
occur.
The author includes the following recommendations in response to these research findings:

1. People are migrating to the cities and elsewhere in the country for livelihood
opportunities. So to stop migration, push factors, which are lack of employment
opportunities, frequent disasters, disappearance of agricultural land etc., are to be
addressed.
2. Rain water harvesting to reduce the abstraction of ground water and provide safe water
that is lacking in southeast coastal is encouraged.
3. The water transport system can restore the flow of river. So environment friendly water
transport system is encouraged.
4. Natural water flow which was destroyed by polderizaiton, embankments and
construction of ponds and infrastructure for shrimp cultivation is to be restored.

5. Any activities harmful to Sundarbans are to be banned. Alternative livelihood for those
who depend on Sundarbans is to be given.

6. If the cultivation of shrimp prevents the natural water flow, then shrimp cultivation is to
be banned.

7. Discharge of emission from industrial enclaves are to be zoned so that fragile coastal
ecosystem are not interfered such as Sundarbans

The paper effectively finds out major policy gaps of southeast coastal area of Bangladesh and
their impact on ecosystem and natural resources in Bangladesh. The lesson learned from this
paper is that due to unintentional negative effects of past policies, the area in question have
been facing significant problems in terms of destruction of water flow, livelihood by
polderization. To solve these problems, the problems articulated in this paper are to be
conceptualized in policy formulation.