Retreating Himalayan Icefields Threatening Drought In Bangladesh

Bangladesh has good reason to feel aggrieved at global warming. Its annual carbon emissions only 0.172 tons per capita, compared to 21 tons in the US. If the rivers dry up, it would leave Bangladesh completely at the mercy of the rains.

But the country is as much at risk from drought as it is from flooding. Already farmers who used to grow rice have turned to farming prawns because the water in their fields has turned so salty nothing will grow there.

Bangladesh is the front line of global warming, with rivers drying up, and increasingly common freak weather conditions that include out-of-season tornadoes and tides that have stopped changing. The entire country is one huge delta, formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. Flooding may seem to be Bangladesh’s greatest enemy, but in fact the rivers are its lifeline. They are the main source of fresh water for a country where agriculture represents 21 per cent of the economy. And environmentalists fear that if the Himalayan glaciers melt, the rivers’ flow will reduce drastically.

Most people tend to think the main risk in Bangladesh is a catastrophic flood from rising sea levels. But the country has a defence against that: a series of dykes along the coast which should be able to withstand predicted rises in the sea level. There is no defence against drought.

Professor Ainun Nishat, one of the country’s leading climate experts, says it is the melting of the…

Posted by ShiftShapers
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