Cox’s Bazar city is now full of climate displaced peoples from its different vulnerable upazilas and other districts of the country. They are living here are there and their rights of housing, lands and property totally absent. As a result these displaced peoples are destroying hills, cutting trees and vanishing forests of Cox’s Bazar. We should prepare a database for counting the number of climate displaced peoples living here. To protect the environment of most-visited tourist destination Cox’s Bazar, we should rehabilitate the climate displaced peoples in a definite place and secure their rights. Speakers expressed their worries in the advocacy meeting that was organised by Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) on 27 February last with the participation of GO, NGO representatives, journalists and civil society groups under YPSA-HLP rights initiative project at the Zilla Parishad conference hall of Cox’s Bazar supported by the Displacement Solutions.
In the stakeholder consultation meeting, Mr, Sarwar Kamal, Mayor, Cox’s Bazar Municipality was present as chief guest and said that, Bangladesh would lose 15 percent of its landmass and displace over 35 million people from 19 districts in the event of a one meter sea level rise in this century; that more than 200 million people may be displaced permanently from their traditional habitats due to cyclone, tidal surge and river bank erosion combined with high saline water intrusion; or that approximately 63 million and 78 million people might be displaced in 2015 and 2020 respectively. However, at present, through a combination of lack of political will as well as a lack of financial and technical resources, there are currently no comprehensive mechanisms to provide support and to ensure the rights of climate displaced persons. Among the 64 districts of Bangladesh, 26 coastal and mainland districts are already producing climate displaced people and these are- Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Bhola, Feni, Lakhmipur, Patuakhali, Barishal, Borguna, Sariatpur, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogra, Nilfamari, Pirojpur, Chandpur, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Manikganj, Jamalpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Gaibandha and Fairdpur district.
Ajit Nandi, Regionam Manager of BRAC; Ashraful Huda Siddiquee Jamshed, Akhter Kamal, Rafiqul Islam, Councilors of Cox’s Bazar Municipalities; Syed Assraf Ullah, Prabal Barua and Md. Harun, Program officer of YPSA were present at the consultation meeting with stakeholders.
Chief Guest of the advocacy meeting Mr, Sarwar Kamal, Mayor, Cox’s Bazar Municipality, mentioned that, YPSA is performing greatly in this area for the betterment of community people. These are a kind of initiatives which focuses on the rights of climate induced displaced families, Bangladesh ratifies the UN charter and we are responsible to ensure the rights of the displaced people. From local administration we are promising our full support in such initiatives from YPSA. We should ensure sustainable utilization of land and strictly implement Land use policy of the country. The database for climate displaced peoples should be urgently necessary and if YPSA will take necessary action to do research on climate displaced peoples scenario at Cox’s Bazar, we can ensure Cox’s Bazar Municipality will be given all kinds of support for rehabilitate the disaster affected victims.
The speakers asked that Bangladesh requires not only comprehensive policies to ensure the rights of climate displaced persons, but also a supporting institutional framework – that is rights-based, coherent and effective, with clear lines of responsibility and accountability – in order to ensure the human rights of all climate displaced persons both now and in the future in Bangladesh. But there is no comprehensive national policy in Bangladesh that specifically targets climate displacement. Resettlement for the displaced peoples should be a last resort in climate change adaptation, but the reality is that it is already occurring in some countries and this trend is likely to intensify. The climate-induced migrants are often discriminated and face different problems during or after the displacement. In many cases, the policies and institutional frameworks are not sufficient to protect the displaced people. The rehabilitation of displaced persons by government and non-government sectors are, to date, insignificant in terms of the total number of displaced persons. Importantly, livelihood problems remain after the rehabilitation of displaced persons. There should be a rights-based solution to this problem. There should be initiatives to generate sustainable employment opportunity for the rehabilitated climate displaced persons.
In the Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2014, Bangladesh has ranked fifth among 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change-induced natural disasters in the last two decades from 1993 to 2012. During the period, Bangladesh suffered damages worth US$1,832.70 million, wrought by 242 types of natural catastrophes. – Press Release
