Regularly received satellite imageries and other tangible supporting evidences suggest that Bangladesh is about to receive the gift of a huge land mass from its adjoining sea. The size of this land mass, eventually, could be as big as the present size of Bangladesh or even bigger. But it will depend considerably on what the Bangladeshis themselves do – like the people of Holland did – to reclaim land from the sea to be joined to the mainland.
Unfortunately, land reclamation projects in the country’s annual development programmes (ADPs) is not noted. Only scanty or insignificant allocations have been made over the years to build dams or other structures needed to accelerate the process of accretion of coastal land. This attitude, undoubtedly, reflects a serious neglect of the vital national interest. Successive governments should have done all in their powers to accelerate the land reclamation process which holds out so much promise for this land hungry country. They should have been proactive in mobilising foreign assistance to realise the objective.
Already, a substantial land mass has surfaced off the shores of Bangladesh where human habitations are noted while others emerge during the ebbing of the tide and go under water during the tides. The latter types of land formations could be elevated to be permanently joined to the mainland by engineering to step up the land accretion process. Indeed, much of present day Bangladesh including the districts of Faridpur, Barisal, Noakhali, Patuakhali, etc., were formed, over time in this manner.
Bangladesh is likely to get a positive response for funds as well as technical supports from the international community if it can show that it is really keen to reclaim land from the sea for the overpopulated country. But we have to put the endeavour under a systematic policy framework.
Holland is one country with unmatched expertise and experience in obtaining land out of the sea. It was in a situation much worse than Bangladesh. Holland was below the sea level for which high tides and storms in the sea used to completely inundate it. The Dutch engineering solved these problems. They permanently reclaimed vast stretches of land from the sea and keep them dry within secure barriers or sea walls.
Thus, we have to engage Holland under a time-bound plan to help us in getting lands out of the sea. Also, Bangladesh with its own available resources and expertise can also achieve a great deal towards this end. Only real interest and efforts are needed.
No denying that a great part of Bangladesh, the largest delta in the world, is low lying, very usual for a delta. But when we talk of the impacts of global warming on Bangladesh, we must not forget or ignore the fact that it’s a dynamic delta and its landmass is still growing, at the same time the land is being raised by gradual deposition of silt.
Due to global warming, to which the contribution of Bangladesh is minimal, the rate of local relative sea level rise is 7 mm a year around the coastal areas of the country. An alarming trend indeed for the future, but this is only the one side of the coin. The other side is that the average sediment accumulation rate for the last few hundred years in the coastal areas of Bangladesh is 5-6 mm a year.
What we see is that the sea level rises 7 mm/year and the land rises 5-6 mm/year; it means the relative sea level rise in the coastal areas of Bangladesh is 1-2 mm/year. The elevation of the Barisal town, which stands only at a distance of about 90 kilometers from the coastline, is 3 meters above Mean Sea Level. So to reach up to Barisal town level, the sea will take 1,000 (one thousand) years, if its level rises at 3 mm/year. This is one aspect of the picture; and the other aspect is that the coastline of Bangladesh is not static, rather progressing outward due to the fact that tremendous amount of silt being deposited on the shore in the Meghna estuary, causing land accretion.
Each year about 2.4 billion tons of sediment from the Himalayas is carried by the rivers of Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal, and deposited on the continental shelf causing accretion of land to the coast of the country. The high sediment load results in a net accretion of about 35 square kilometers of land per year to Bangladesh.
Satellite pictures say of new land measuring no less than 20,000 (twenty thousand) square kilometers being formed in the Bay of Bengal in the coastal zones of Bangladesh. Inhabitants on our coastal islands, Neejhum Deep, Char Kukrimukri, Char Jabbar etc, know that how every year new shoals in our coastal zones are coming up, and how the water is getting more and more shallow between these shoals. We know Bangladesh has been formed over tens of thousands of years through the settling down of sediment on the bed of the Bay. Only about three thousand years back one of our seaports was near Gopalganj in Faridpur district. We can see how far the coastline of our country has extended during the last three millennia.
Some of us may join the chorus that say Bangladesh is drowning due to global warming with the hope of getting some aid for the country from the rich countries by evoking sympathy in them. What we need is not such dole money, but investment and tourism to make big strides forward in our economic progress. Seeking aid or dole money does not go with the sense of self-dignity. Some people term our annual flood as dreadful, but it is not indeed. The flood makes our soil fertile for better harvest, raises the land up gradually by millimeters each year.
There’s the shining example of the Netherlands in front of us. About half of the land area in the Netherlands lies at or below sea level. The Dutch built dikes around swampy or flooded land and then pumped the water out. Several major rivers of Europe flow through the Netherlands into the sea. The country has few natural resources, and its lands are not so good for agriculture. But the Dutch have struggled to make their country one of the wealthiest in the world. We can do the same.