Climate adaptation plans must identify the correct problem: Gawher Nayeem Wahra

Since the turn of the century, the country has formulated around half a dozen policy and action plans regarding climate change adaptation. Numerous projects have been implemented, and are currently underway to the same end.

The fight of the country against natural disasters, of course, goes way back. 

Since the 1970s, the government of Bangladesh, with the support of development partners, has implemented flood protection and drainage schemes to prevent flooding by both fresh and saline water, which include coastal embankment projects. 

These projects include thousands of kilometres of embankments and polders; thousands of cyclone shelters; agricultural research programmes to develop saline, drought and flood-adapted high-yielding varieties of rice and other crops; irrigation schemes to enable farmers to grow more rice in areas subject to heavy monsoon flooding and in other parts of the country (including drought-prone areas); comprehensive disaster management projects involving community-based programmes; coastal 'greenbelt' projects involving mangrove planting along the coastline, etc.

It is important, from time to time, to look back and assess what has been done, and how effective those measures have been. In the context of changing climate and its growing impacts, adaptation measures that have been already taken may need constant revisions.

The Business Standard spoke with Gawher Nayeem Wahra, a climate change and disaster management expert, to get a glimpse of what has been going on on the adaptation front.  

First and foremost, Wahra said, it is imperative to be very careful about figuring out the actual reason behind a change. He identifies the most daunting climate impact (as perceived by many) in Bangladesh - salinity increase in the southwest - to be one of the issues that is wrongly attributed to climate change alone.

"The reason behind the salinity increase in the southwest is that fresh water from the Padma river cannot come through the Gorai and Modhumoti rivers. Salinity in the Indian part of the Sundarbans is not as severe as in Bangladesh," said Wahra. 

"Because they are channelling the fresh water into there, diverting the flow from our side at Farakka," he explained, adding, "Adaptation plans based on wrongful identification of causes will not bring real solutions."

Sundarbans is a natural safeguard against cyclonic water surges. The forest proved its worth time and again, most famously during the Sidr that battered the coast in 2007. While it is important to protect the forest from human greed, some erroneous measures have been taken since the aftermath of Sidr. 

"After Sidr, entry of local forest users was banned. The motto was: 'Let the Sundarbans be.' It was an emotion-based decision. The fact is, there are some plants, such as Golpata (Nipa Palm), that need cutting of the leaves twice every year. Otherwise, they will not survive. Golpata collectors used to do this service to the forest," said Wahra, who is the Founder Member Secretary of Disaster Forum. 

Now although the Golpata collectors are allowed in the forest, big boats are not. As a result, fetching Golpata is not economically viable anymore. 

"Once Golpata plants in the forest started dying, it was labelled as an impact of climate change. Barring these traditional users of the forests is not a good idea, as they help the forest. These types of adaptation strategies are really counterproductive," Wahra said. 

As the collection of Golpata stopped, it had a chain reaction on other things. As the traditional roofing material ran short due to the banning, villagers tried to switch to corrugated tin sheets, which do not last long in saline environments. Later, they started using cheap asbestos sheets, which are carcinogenic. 

"People living in the coastal areas make use of rainwater harvesting to meet their freshwater needs. Asbestos is a carcinogenic material, so the water collected through the asbestos roof poses a real threat to the health of the people. Asbestos is sourced from countries like China and Canada, where this material is banned. 

The EU even banned the use of asbestos as insulation of water pipes. But we are using it as a roofing material," said Wahra, who is also a former director of Brac's Disaster Management and Climate Change Programme, and a faculty at the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, University of Dhaka.

"Thus, in the name of adaptation, we forced people to adopt something which is detrimental to their wellbeing," he added.

Food security is mentioned as one of the main 'pillars' of our climate change adaptation strategy. Hence, agriculture sits at the forefront of adaptation and innovation in the country. 

As the salinity-prone coastal areas became mostly unsuitable for paddy cultivation, sunflower cultivation has been promoted in saline-prone areas. However, in the absence of machines needed for extracting oil from sunflower seeds, the harvest is used as cattle and poultry feed, whereas sunflower oil is a valuable edible oil, which would fetch more money for the farmers.

"In adaptation plans like this one, we have not thought about the support system they need," said the expert.

Although we are also promoting saline-tolerant rice varieties in the affected areas, Wahra thinks more research in this sector is required. 

"Salinity has actually damaged the micronutrients in the soil of this region. Studies conducted by Dhaka University researchers confirmed it. The rice does not taste good, and it sells at a very low price for the same reason. There is a huge difference in price between those produced with fresh water and those with brackish water. The farmers who produce it only do so because they need rice for themselves," Wahra elaborated.

While many adaptation plans are implemented by various government or non-government agencies, some of those are purely indigenous and done by local people. A rise in vegetable cultivation is one of them.

"In the salinity-prone areas, farmers are now growing interested in vegetable cultivation. Bagerhat's C&B Bazar is now busy beyond description, which was a tiny marketplace in the past. It has become a vegetable hub. Vegetables are now produced even in the shrimp farms," informed Wahra.

This, however, could be made better by removing their dependence on seed companies.

"The farmers have to buy seeds every year, with cash money, which they do not have much of. We have to create an enabling environment for the farmers so they can preserve seeds," said Wahra. 

"Hybrid varieties limit that ability. We have to figure out a way, maybe by increasing the number of contract growers, and by providing them with the technology so eventually, the farmers have control over seeds," he explained.

Another crucial matter in the agriculture sector that Gawher Nayeem Wahra pointed out is the distribution of combined harvesters by the government. The government is distributing these machines at a subsidised price, which are mostly going to rice mill owners, Wahra said. These millers are collecting the rice from the crop fields directly, and they are enjoying so much leverage that the government could not buy enough rice in the last season. 

Also, in the context of climate variability, when paddy fields are submerged under water in the event of early floods, these harvesters are unable to cut the paddy. There are, of course, machines that can do it, but we are not trying to source different varieties of machines, effective in different situations.

"People are now trying to adapt to climatic and other human-made changes by various means; some are now farming freshwater fish in the previously shrimp ponds, and some have switched to vegetable cultivation instead of paddy. We have to support these initiatives," said Wahra.

In changing weather patterns and agriculture practices, we even have to bring changes to 'khonar Bochon' (agriculture-themed short poems of legendary Bangalee poet and astrologer), Wahra said. 

"Khona said, 'Jodi borshe Magher sesh, dhonni rajar punno desh' (rain in the late Magh month is good for crops). But nowadays there is potato in the field in late Magh, which gets damaged in rain. Potatoes were not cultivated during the times of Khona. So the bochon (verses) are not suitable for today," he explained, adding, "Our poets, singers, farmers, scientists… we all have to work together."

Climate change is a matter of continuous research, instead of piecemeal projects.  There are no blanket solutions for climate change, the expert said. Our adaptation strategies need to be refined at every step before it is brought into practice. There may be errors at first, but the erroneous measures should not be considered as adaptation.

"We are after one size fits all solutions. Ours is a small country, but it has many variations everywhere: in elevation of land, weather, agriculture practices, etc. our climate change adaptation planning must take these variations into consideration," Wahra opined.

The expert further opined that adaptation cannot be done through NGO projects. NGOs can create small examples, which will not be sustainable, and also the funding is short-lived. He said there is little difference between the projects of NGOs and the government. 

Then what might be the solution?

"Adaptation measures should be taken through long-term research. The research can be carried out by universities, government agencies and so on. And there should be an allocation for that in those institutes' main budget (as opposed to the project budget). Public universities run on public money, so they should conduct research for the betterment of people," Wahra concluded.