Salty Tears . . .

We have no drinking water due to salinity; the high tide raised in significant rate the embankments had collapsed three times within last two years said a villager Mohammad Johor Ali who is working as a boatman. When the storm is arrived I went to take shelter near a small cannel and anchor my boat at BDR (ghat) slope and praying to the Allah and just waiting for die because situation is not to explain …. I think the Allah save me ….

                                 -Mohammad Johor Ali, A Boat Man, Gabura Village

Gabura,Satkhera February,2010- People rebuild their collapsed embankment-Copy Right-Monirul Alam

Bangladesh is situated at the interface of two different environments, with the Bay of Bengal to the south and the Himalayas to the north. This peculiar geography of Bangladesh causes not only life-giving monsoons but also catastrophic ravages of natural disasters, to which now are added climate change. Floods, Droughts Cyclones and Tidal surges are common threats now in Bangladesh. The country has a very low and flat topography, except the northeast and southeast regions. About 10 percent of the country is hardly 1 meter above the Mean Sea Level, and one-third is under tidal excursions.

Gabura is like an Island. It is the most southern settlement of Southwest Coastal Bangladesh. Increased salinity interruptions, agricultural damage, high tide rose, drinking water crises and frequent tiger attack is daily hazard of the people. The name of Gabura is widely discussed as become almost barren land after cyclone Aila. I was there, after nine month of cyclone Aila to see and talked with them.

People rebuild their collapsed embankment again and again. They fight with bamboo, mud and full of their energy against the sea- they lost their homeland but not to their hope, they fight and struggle continuously for surviving their lives. I think their struggle against the sea is really amazing it’s an example for the world’s people at the same time I deeply observed to their salty tears that lost their dearest one’s . . .