Climatelinks Photo Gallery

In Bangladesh, USAID has been at the forefront of transforming agri-food system through promoting inclusive and sustainable climate smart technologies and practices. This group of women has been trained and recruited by a local agro firm in Jashore, in the southern part of the country, to prepare improved "grow media," a critical input for vegetable production that promises better and higher yield. This also contributes to maintaining and improving soil health. Through a grant under a contract, USAID is supporting this local private sector firm to not only promote climate smart agricultural technologies, practices and approaches, but also helping rural women with income earning activities, contributing to their welfare.

The village of Kalabagi, located in the Dakop region of the Khulna district of Bangladesh, faces a crisis of freshwater. Due to rising sea levels, Kalabagi was inundated with salt water during high tide. Lacking fresh water, people living in this area are now using salt water for daily use, leading to various diseases.

Female workers sort through a pile of tens of thousands of plastic household items for them to be recycled in a recycling plastic factory in Barishal city, Bangladesh. As plastic breaks down, sunlight and heat cause the plastic to release powerful greenhouse gases. Hotter temperatures cause the plastic to break down further into more methane and ethylene, increasing the rate of climate change––perpetuating the cycle of warming. The thousands of bottles, household toys, plastic materials collected from households, restaurants, hotels and markets, all come from the city of Barishal in Bangladesh. "There are about 20 to 25 thousand bottles in the pile, which usually consists of around 7-10 days worth of collecting plastic bottles from the area. Street workers bring them to the recycling factory in vans or trucks depending on the quantity collected. The people are sorting and recycling the used plastic bottles thrown away after use according to colour, size and thickness." "After that, they are sent out to different factories for further processing. The bottles will be melted and made into new ones. So there will be less harm to the environment. With plastic never decaying, plastic recycling in Bangladesh is a big industry nowadays."

This picture was taken in the Dakop region in the Khulna district of Bangladesh. The problem that has arisen in Bangladesh due to climate change is highlighted in this picture: rising sea levels. Kalabagi village in Dakop Upazila has become unhabitable due to rising sea levels linked to climate change. A couple who lived in Kalabagi village lost their residence to river erosion last year. Their new address is in Srinagar, 10 km away. The woman suffers from various diseases due to using salt water for many years. Most of the time, they seek medical help from a village doctor. Boats are the main means of transportation due to the coastal location, and her husband must take her about 3 km by boat for treatment.

The picture is taken from Dakop region in Khulna district of Bangladesh. The problem that has arisen in Bangladesh due to climate change has been highlighted through this picture. The child is 6 months old. At the age of 6 months, the child has been sick 4 times with water borne diseases. Due to rising sea level, the amount of salt water in Dakop area has increased. Due to the crisis of pure water, the parents of the child are using salt water to bathe the child. Kalabagi is a coastal area. The village of Kalabagi was inundated with salt water during high tide due to rising sea level. Due to the crisis of freshwater, people living in this area use salt water for daily use. As a result, they are infected with various diseases.

In this photo, millions of bricks are stacked in brick kiln factories situated at Savar, Aminbazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. These factories are major contributors to air and environmental pollution in Bangladesh. There are around 200 Brickfields inside a small area of land in Savar, Aminbazar. Millions of bricks are burnt inside these kilns every day. There are about 6,000 brickfields in all of Bangladesh, 1,000 of which are unregistered, and two billion bricks are produced at these factories annually. After burning the bricks, the bricks are stacked together for sale. Trucks are then used to carry the orders throughout the country.

This is an aerial view of chimneys from a local brick factory flooded by monsoon rains near Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hundreds of brick factories appear to have nearly disappeared under water following severe flooding. The buildings were covered when heavy rainfall caused a nearby river to overflow. Brick kilns are major contributors to air and environmental pollution in Bangladesh, contributing 17 percent of the annual carbon dioxide emissions.

With the high rate of urbanization in recent decades, cities, Paurashavas, and small urban centers produce a huge amount of solid waste every day. Besides urbanization, improved living standards of the people and increased economic activities also resulted in a higher amount of waste per capita in the country. Bangladesh is faced with an acute urban waste management problem. This is a threat to human health through pollution of surface and ground water, soil, and air. 

The primary collection of solid waste from households and markets in large cities is carried out through small neighbourhood efforts. In most cities, a door-to-door collection system is practiced with the effort of community leaders while in smaller ones, the Paurashava staff collect domestic waste and empty them into the community bins. People who collect the garbage take small amounts of money from the residents and shop-keepers for collecting and dumping them in the waste bins. The City Corporation and Paurashava trucks collect the garbage from the bins and take those to the landfill sites, which are open areas in the vicinity of the cities and towns. 

Segregation of garbage is not done by the local bodies and poor scavengers do it only for their own earning, except in some cities and towns where small pilot projects are being tested with the cooperation of donors and NGOs. The huge amount of urban waste generated can potentially be recycled into fertilizers, and generate electricity, and the recovered plastics and metals can be processed and used to produce new products.

The deforestation of mangroves has become a climate change issue. Deforestation is primarily the result of local people cutting mangroves for their livelihood. Mangroves mitigate the effects of climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing coastal protection. In addition, the mangrove ecosystem and its many natural resources, including fish, are vital to communities.

A 6-year-old boy is fishing at night. Fishing is integral to his life. His five to six family members must live on the very small amount of fish they catch.Such families are highly vulnerable to climate change. Their economies, diets, and social lives depend on the fisheries sector. However, climate change harms freshwater culture fisheries in Bangladesh.

This picture was taken at a brick kiln in northwest Bangladesh. Brick production is an important industry in Bangladesh, and approximately 1 million people work directly or indirectly in about 7000 kilns. The number of brick kilns is increasing annually due to rising demands for infrastructure developments. However, these kilns emit carbon dioxide and other harmful gases, polluting cities and rural areas. The air quality in Bangladesh has become severely unhealthy, especially during the dry season when the kilns are active. People who work at brick factories are risking their health. Dhaka, the capital city, has become one of the most polluted cities on the planet, and if this situation continues, other major cities will also become unlivable. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and brick kilns are driving global warming.

This picture depicts an embarkment at Kutubdia island broken by rising sea levels and natural disasters. This area on the southeastern coast of Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, severely impacted by coastal erosion, insufficient contingency plans, and poor infrastructure. Homes, cultivable lands, and trees are being swallowed by the sea every year. As a result, people are becoming increasingly impoverished and struggle to fulfill even their basic needs. Many people are migrating to the cities to seek employment, but this situation also has risks, especially for women and girls, who often become victims of trafficking.

According to the global climate change index, Bangladesh is one of the top ten most vulnerable countries on the planet. Its southern regions are predicted to vanish into the ocean in the next few decades, and, in recent years, seawater levels, coastal and river erosions, and natural disasters have increased in frequency and severity. However, climate-resilient infrastructure has helped protect communities like Mongla, in the Bagerhat district pictured here. The government of Bangladesh has spent tens of thousands of dollars promoting climate resilience in this city and nearby areas, with positive results.

Rising salinity, unusual dry spells, and floods due to climate change have created a shortage of safe and pure drinking water in the southern coastal districts of Bangladesh. Many families are adapting by collecting rainwater.

Due to the impact of climate change, the number of refugees is increasing every day, especially in the southern coastal regions of Bangladesh. As a result, people are desperately moving to the cities to find work. The southern city of Khulna is experiencing many climate change-related issues, including a rising number of climate migrants. Living in Khulna city is expensive, and many low-income climate migrants live just outside the city, on the other side of the Rupsha River. They cross the river every day by ferry boats to go to work.

Being a photo enthusiast, I have been travelling near and far to depict interesting human stories for the last few years. As I am also interested in documentary photography, I went to Sunamganj to document the recent flooding situation there.

On 16 May, I arrived in the Tahirpur and Badaghat area of Sunamganj. The flooding situation was terrible. All of the paddy and vegetable fields along with the roads were underwater. According to the District Agriculture Extension Office, 1,301 hectares of Aush paddy field, 1,704 hectares of Boro field and 1,004 hectares of summer vegetables went underwater.

As it was time to harvest the paddy, the farmers were forced to go down into the water and harvest the paddy with great difficulty. The only means of transportation for people in that area was by boat. All roads were submerged. Students could not attend schools. Every house was surrounded by water.

In this photo story, I have tried to capture the breadth of the human suffering caused by this natural hazard.