Hi there,
Thanks for joining me this week.
Before we dive into the story by our new editor, Parveen Ahmed from Bangladesh, I'll give some reflections on last week’s floods in Europe that killed more than 200 people, shut down transportation, destroyed homes and crops in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. It was front-page news, but climate and ecological crises should be front page everyday.
We rely on age-old water knowledge and assume that we are safe and can control natural elements. Yet, the balance appears to be unbalanced in delta countries, at least in the Netherlands where I live, where sea and river come together. High-tech constructions like the Delta Works have long served as a model for today's challenges. However, we need to find other ways to deal with the effects of climate change. With the Maaswerken along the River Meuse, and the Room for the River Program carried out along Dutch rivers, water levels could be controlled, but this alone is not enough.
The signals have been there for ages, but now the consequences of climate change are becoming visible and tangible in western countries, like the Netherlands. And yet, we read the headlines with amazement. Why are we not prepared for this? How can we be surprised when all the climate summits and reports have been warning us for years?
We need leaders who do not hide behind dams and dikes, but who seek collaboration and action. Let it be a wake-up call to put water and climate change higher on the political agenda.
My love affair with water
The earliest memory I have of my hometown, Dhaka, is the vast river near my grandparents' home in the old part of the city. The Buriganga teemed with life back then, with huge sailboats, carrying everything from bales of jute to people, plying on the seemingly edgeless river. Its banks were dotted with undulating dinghy boats, waiting for passengers. You could hear the waves and the wind. Sometimes, you could see a ‘shushuk’ (river dolphin) or two swimming under the clear water. The hustle-bustle along the Buriganga is still there, but the river is not the same anymore.
Nearly two decades later when I returned to Bangladesh to work after years of living abroad (always near the sea or a river somewhere), my first major reporting assignment was covering the nationwide floods of 1998 that had also affected the capital city. Dhaka was usually spared from flooding by six surrounding rivers and a network of interconnecting lakes and canals that helped drain off the monsoon rains. But that year, most parts of the city, including the central business district, upscale residential areas and the international airport built on higher ground, were inundated.
As I traversed the flooded city on makeshift rafts, I saw that the rivers that had once protected the city had shrunk into murky water bodies, resembling canals. The cargo boats with the colourful sails were long gone, replaced by noisy motorized ones. Freshwater creatures, too, had abandoned the polluted rivers. And the city’s once-famed canals that had earned Dhaka the nickname of "Venice of the East" had mostly disappeared.
While talking to experts, I discovered that rapid urbanization and fast-track industrialization, more than natural causes, were being blamed for the state of Dhaka's rivers. The riverbanks were 'grabbed' (filled up with sand and refuse) to build factories and new housing estates, and the riverbeds were piled up with industrial wastes, sewerage, and concrete debris from reconstruction of the 400-year-old city. Embankments built to protect its low-lying areas were breached or built upon in places.
There was a lot of talk about reclaiming the canals and riverbanks from encroachers, clearing the riverbeds, and repairing the flood-protection barriers. But most of the buzz was soon lost till floods hit the city again in 2004. This time, the government took some effective measures, namely repairing or constructing modern drainage systems, culverts and sluice gates, and ensuring better coordination among the various water and city authorities to deter floods.
Parts of Dhaka still get inundated intermittently during the monsoon (June-October), mainly due to waterlogging caused by blocked culverts and storm drains, and continued river 'grabbing' despite stringent laws. But the city hasn't witnessed widespread flooding on the scale of the 1998 and 2004 deluges.
As I continued my career in environmental journalism and development communication around the country, I noticed a common phenomenon linking our natural disasters to water. Be it floods, droughts, river erosion, tidal waves, rising sea levels and salination, or arsenic-contaminated ground water. As a child, I would often hear foreigners describe my country as: "Bangladesh, people always dying in floods and cyclones". Now, it gives me great pleasure to report on how we manage to control and mitigate our water-related problems with concrete steps and policies. We are yet to completely stop pollution and encroachment of our water bodies, but very few lives are lost these days in floods and cyclones.
Water Story
Farmers till the sands of the Kamala river in Nepal
In recent years cultivation has sprung up along a 35-kilometre stretch of the Kamala river, bringing both opportunities and problems.
Video of the Week
Tweet of the Week
Hello. We're Nextblue.
Nextblue is a storytelling platform covering the intersection between water and climate change.
Together, we can empower the voices of communities in the heart of delta regions around the world.
If you have any questions or suggestions for this newsletter, Nextblue, or want to propose your own story on water and climate change. Just send an email to joep@next.blue.
Have a nice weekend,
Joep
