Bangladesh Offers a Glimpse of the Water Crises of Tomorrow - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/climate/bangladesh-water-floods.htmlThe people of Bangladesh are rushing to harvest rice as soon as they get word of heavy rains upstream. They’re building floating beds of water hyacinths to grow vegetables beyond the reach of floodwaters. Where shrimp farms have turned the soil too salty to cultivate crops, they’re growing okra and tomatoes not in soil, but in compost, stuffed into plastic boxes that had once carried shrimp. Where the land itself is washing away, people have to move to other villages and towns. And where they’re running out of even drinking water, they’re learning to drink every drop of rain.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, a governing party lawmaker and the prime minister’s climate envoy, compared his country’s efforts to plugging a leaky barrel. “It’s like when you have a drum that’s got seven leaks, and you’ve got two hands,” he said. “What do you do? It’s not an easy thing.”
Bangladesh has succeeded in saving lives during cyclones and floods. But there’s a host of other challenges to address, all at once: finding new sources of drinking water for millions along the coast, extending crop insurance, preparing cities for the inevitable influx of migrants from the countryside, even cultivating good relations with neighboring countries to share weather data.