DS Sourav
Climate change would make people in Bangladesh vulnerable to increased prevalence of diseases, such as cholera, dengue and respiratory problems. Malnutrition due to food scarcity, and reduction in food production would also be the consequences, climate experts forecast. Climate change will also lead to poorer nutrition, putting people with perilous immune systems at more risk of dying of HIV.
Dr Quamrun Nahar, Acting Senior Director, Health System and Population Studies and Head, Initiative for Climate and Health at icddr,b, told Bangladesh Post, “ We are in a critical situation and this is the right time to admit it. Climate change has grave consequences on our health. Public health effects might be one of the most significant impacts of global climate change in Bangladesh.”
Climate change is now not just a global phenomenon. Bangladesh is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. From city to rural area people can now decipher how it affects their daily lives. According to a UN report, some 17 percent area of Bangladesh would go under water by 2050 if sea levels rise by just one meter. Less than in ten years, Bangladesh has witnessed catastrophic cyclones, floods, droughts and severe monsoonal changes.
Rising sea level due to global warming means seawater engulfing more land and getting closer to human habitats. “Consequently, increased human exposure to seawater carrying salt-loving pathogens may result in more frequent and bigger disease outbreaks,” says Dr Munirul Alam, senior scientist and a microbiologist with icddr,b infectious diseases division.
Evidences of rising infections associated with sea-level rise and warmer climate areas suggest that climate change induced warming sea temperature may be facilitating the growth and multiplication of these (salt friendly) pathogens, Munirul Alam adds. Another research of Sudhir Chella Rajan who teaches at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, claims the potential displacement of vast numbers of people as a consequence mainly of sea level rise along the coasts and secondarily from drought in rural areas in South Asia.
His research claims, climate crisis that is likely to unfold in South Asia will create profound challenges. With a 5-metre sea level rise, there will be about 125 million climate migrants in this region alone with little or no legal standing under current international law. In fact the 75 million or so from Bangladesh will be especially vulnerable as their entire nation-state becomes non-viable as an entity, with most of its land inundated, and its economy defunct.
