Climate change disrupts 4 lakh lives in Morrelganj
Bagerhat Correspondent :
Climate change has disrupted the lives of 400,000 people in Morelganj, a coastal town in Bagerhat district.
The people of this local town have been suffering for years together due to constant natural disasters, river erosion due to changes, excessive rainfall, drought and tidal waves. Hundreds of families have lost their homes and moved elsewhere, becoming destitute.
Hundreds of local men and women from various professions formed a human chain at Khaulia Bazar at 11 am on Wednesday (August 20), with the support of non-governmental development organizations Dorp and Helvetas Bangladesh, demanding separate budgets for water, sanitation and climate sectors in the southwestern part of the country, adequate budgets for the construction of sustainable embankments, measures to prevent saltwater intrusion, and budget planning and implementation based on local needs.
It has been found that about 4 lakh people live in 16 unions and a municipality of this coastal Upazila. Geographically, the life of the people of this riverside township, which is located near the Sundarbans and is located near the sea, is constantly being disrupted.
On the one hand, continuous river erosion, salinity and shortage of drinking water are hampering the economic activities of 80 percent of the people who depend on agriculture. The production of multiple crops on 10,500 hectares of lands is being disrupted due to salinity.
According to the agricultural office sources, out of the 44,580 hectares of the upazila, 28,225 hectares are cultivated cropland. Every year, 510 hectares of this cropland is being lost to the river. More than a hundred of the oldest canals have been filled and disused, merging with the land.
Which have now become non-existent? Although there are 16 sluice gates at different points of water movement in the cropland, it is insufficient compared to the demand.
According to sources from the Public Health Engineering Department, although 700 tube wells have been installed in this Upazila since 1976 for the use of potable water, they are unusable due to excessive salinity.