Country burns with heat as climate catastrophe intensifies

The record temperature, lack of rain, rising salinity, scarcity of fresh water and frequent natural disasters are now the nature of Bangladesh. Rivers and wetlands are drying up under the scorching heat of the summer sun.

Monsoon is supposed to begin in Bangladesh in the middle of June, but the information provided by the Meteorological Office is quite scary. The Met Office says warm temperature is likely to continue across the country throughout June.

Meteorologist and environmentalists have expressed concern over this massive change in the country’s seasonal cycle. They said Bangladesh is in the list of top 10 affected countries due to global climate change. Major changes are undergoing in the country’s eco system which ultimately is affecting economy, agriculture, livelihood of people, rivers and animal life. People are struggling to adapt to the massive change in climate.

Unabated carbon emission is globally blamed as the main reason behind the climate change. However, two environmentalists who spoke to The Business Post cited other reasons also.

They said in addition to global warming, relentless deforestation and unabated encroachment of rivers and other water reservoirs are also responsible for the drastic change in the country’s seasonal cycle. Besides, Bangladesh’s environment has become an easy victim of withdrawal of water from international rivers by China and India. Due to these reasons, the temperature has increased by one and a half degrees in Bangladesh in the last decade alone. As a result, the seasonal cycle is changing and the rainy season is vanishing into the thin air.

Record decrease in rainfall

According to the Meteorological Department, 2022 was almost a rainless year for Bangladesh. July 2022 saw 57.6 per cent less rainfall than the average rainfall in the month in the last 30 years. The average rainfall for July that year was 211 mm, the lowest since 1981. On the other hand, the average rainfall in July of the last 30 years was 496 mm.

The average rainfall in 2020 was 553 mm, which is 11.3 per cent higher than other years. The average rainfall in 2021 was 471 mm, which is 5 per cent less than other years.

Besides, the Meteorological Department said that the rainfall in August last year was the lowest in the last 42 years.

Meteorologist Bazlur Rahman said, “We usually record maximum rainfall in July and August, but in July last, we recorded 57 per cent less rain.”

North burning with drought

Since March this year, the country has been witnessing high temperatures and it is continuing for three consecutive months. The temperature recorded in Dhaka in April last was the highest in 63 years.

According to the Meteorological Office, the average temperature in the northern districts is 36 degrees Celsius and most of the days this temperature is exceeding 41 degrees Celsius.

In the northern districts, known as food reserves of the country, a drastic change has occurred in crops production with the farmers becoming completely dependent on ground water due to lack of rain.

The construction of dams by India and China on the upstream of major cross-boundary rivers including Teesta, Brahmaputra and Padma has created a shortage of surface water in the northern region where, according to the locals, most of the rivers are drying up and dying.

Professor Ahmed Kamruzzaman Mazumder of Stamford University Bangladesh said, “If there were more reservoirs and greenery, the warming of urbanisation would not have affected that much. Because water from the reservoirs would have evaporated and produce rain. With the decrease in the number of reservoirs, rainfall is also decreasing in the country.”

Salinity affecting south

According to the Institute of Soil Resources Development, the sea level is rising by about three millimetres a year along the coast of Bangladesh. Rice production in the country’s southern region is projected to decline by 8 per cent and wheat by 32 per cent by 2050 due to salinity.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report, about 2.7 million people in Bangladesh are at risk from sea level rise by 2050. By 2030, an additional 600,000 people are at risk in Bangladesh each year from climate change-induced cyclones and floods, and an additional $125 billion in economic losses is likely.

Professor Kamruzzaman Majumder said that there are two losses due to the decrease in rainfall and the blocking of international rivers upstream. First the northern districts are not getting water and the rivers are dying while the southern districts are getting saline water from the sea as the rivers are not flowing.