FJA Shortlist 2021
Category: Excellence in Environmental Journalism
Author: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury, Irwin Loy (Bangladesh)
Bangladesh’s Hidden Climate Costs
The original publication is available via the following link: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interactive/stories/2020/bangladesh-amphan-hidden-climate-costs/
The New Humanitarian, Switzerland - December 9th, 2020
‘We are not able to build our houses again.’
Coastal Bangladesh was lashed by a punishing storm this year, then submerged by monsoon floods. The damages linger long after.
Cyclone Amphan tore across Bangladesh’s southwestern coast in May, and severe floods inundated a quarter of the country weeks later.
Photographer Zakir Hossain Chowdhury’s images show how the damage endures. Battered communities in parts of Khulna district, a strip of coastal wetlands, are still living in temporary homes on embankments, or in emergency storm shelters meant to house people for days – not weeks or months.
Amphan smashed open kilometres of embankments protecting sub-districts like Koyra and Assasuni. The barriers, which keep tidal waters at bay, haven’t been repaired, leaving communities exposed to daily floods that rush in with each high tide.