When the water doesn't recede: What does being healthy mean to Bangladesh's Char Communities? (long version)

Perspectives from local char communities of Southern Bangladesh affected by floods and cyclones

Location: Sundarbans region, South-West of Bangladesh

When I asked the local char communities of two coastal villages near Sundarbans to describe to me what health meant to them, it was daunting to hear that all aspects included in that definition were damaged or destroyed after a cyclone or a flood.

Their answer: Access to food, specifically nutritious food high in protein. Good and healthy food, they said. And water, they added. And finally, hygienic toilets.

Clearly, for these communities, being healthy is deeply connected to the health of their animals and the environment around them. When the soil and water are healthy, people have good food and are less likely to get sick. These connections are reflected in an approach called “One Health,” a framework many researchers have been using to broaden their analysis of health.

Image 1: Focus group discussion in the Jhapa village of Southern Bangladesh led by two Climate Action colleagues from Friendship and me.

Rising extreme weather events

In the southern regions of Bangladesh, floods and cyclones bring landslides and saline water intrusion. This is not new news. These natural disasters have been occurring for the past century, but have been intensifying in the years 2007-2008 with major cyclones like Sidr and Aila. The country more recently experienced Cyclone Amphan, where about 50-70% of the local population suffered from completely destroyed or heavily damaged households (Shamsuddoha et al., 2013). The main causes include monsoon rains, strong river flows, weakened riverbanks, and harmful human activities such as deforestation, excessive sand extraction, and alteration of natural river flows (ISCP Bangladesh, 2026).

Image 2: The world map placing Bangladesh

During the three focus group discussions we conducted, the community confirmed what the literature has been reporting: disasters are increasing not only in frequency but also in intensity because the Bay of Bengal’s waters are getting warmer. These extreme weather events are becoming more unpredictable, adding another layer of complexity as communities are less able to prepare for the events. On top of that, the sea level in this area is rising faster than the global average, about 3-5 millimeters each year. This means that the low-lying char lands are slowly but surely disappearing under the rising waters (O’Leary, 2023).

Reminder: When the soil and water are healthy, people have good food and are less likely to get sick. But what if they are unhealthy…?

The communities we interviewed were mainly paddy field farmers or earned income through fisheries. Most had animals such as goats, cows, chickens, ducks, and dogs.

Exposure Risks

In Bangladesh, most of the population at high-risk for exposure live in high levels of poverty. They live in what we call “chars” which risk mapping has identified as being the higher risk locations for cyclones and floods (Start Fund Bangladesh, 2022).

Image 3: Picture of the boat that brought us from the mainland to the char village.

Chars are river islands created by the deposit of silt and sand from rivers. More than five thousand people live on these islands because they have highly fertile land. However, their unstable structure also makes them vulnerable to river fluctuations and erosion, which is exacerbated by climate change (Uddin et al, 2019). Due to its location and geographical characteristics, this land is especially vulnerable to disasters such as floods and cyclones.

“Water, the ally of humans, is now also a menace” (Yann Arthus-Bertrand, 2016)

Image 4: Fisheries in the local char communities.

Vulnerability

These populations are vulnerable in part due to their dependency on land and cattle for food and livelihoods. Wealth in the extremely poor char communities is first determined by the amount of land a household can cultivate, but also by the access to land, the ownership of livestock, and any other productive assets such as solar panels, mobile phones, agricultural tools, and a TV (Start Fund Bangladesh, 2022).

Image 5: Dry paddy fields and a tractor.

Although ¾ of Bangladesh relies on agriculture as a source of income, this is especially true for char communities (Arthus-Bertrand, 2016). Most rely on their fisheries, their trees, and their land for food and income. The meat, fish, and vegetables they reap, they sell in markets. According to studies in the Northern Bangladesh chars, 39-48% of household yearly income was spent on food, representing their biggest expenditure. Therefore, the environment (especially land and water), is not only a symbol of access to food for healthy nutrition but holds an economic symbol as well.

Image 6: A field of lentils and watermelons.

Adding to this, they live in low-quality housing with limited access to water infrastructure and to health services. These vulnerabilities interact with the risk mapping, making char communities a focal point for interventions (IPCC, 2022).

The environment is changing, and the people feel it.

Image 7: The One Health framework and its definition (European Environment Agency, 2024).

Immediate consequences of floods and cyclones

Beyond injuries, there is loss and damage that goes deep into the physical and social fabric of society (Thierny, 2018). The array of damaging consequences is too wide for this small piece of writing, but I wish to focus on 3 elements, which were recurring concerns during the FGD.

- Destroyed land

- Destroyed fisheries

- Destroyed water treatment plants

Indeed, crops cannot grow in salty water.

When I asked what happened after the disaster ended, I got to tangibly understand the depths of consequences. It was easier for me to conceptualize the direct impacts, such as destroyed houses and physical injuries. It was harder, though, for me to grasp all the more indirect effects.

When people experience damaging events such as disasters, the first step is to repair the damage and try to return to the way things used to be. NGOs are present as the FGD reports receiving financial aid, reconstruction of infrastructure, and food support. However, a return to normal also involves a return to daily activities, including work. Indeed, exposure to these emergencies can affect socio-economic systems as well as ecological and epidemiological outcomes (Panic, 2013).

When your work relies on land and water, it is essential for the land and water to remain “healthy”.

Image 8: Community mapping exercise during the third focus group discussion.

The double burden for communities, where food is not growing, and is causing hunger and poverty.

After a flood or a cyclone, people reported extreme salinity in the soil and water, thereby making it impossible for them to grow crops and sustain their fisheries. As fisheries must be maintained at certain levels of salt, these extremes make it impossible to keep fish alive. Cattle are injured or die.

If crops cannot grow, people and animals cannot eat.

If crops cannot grow, people cannot sell their food in the markets and earn a salary.

If humans, cattle and fish die or become sick, they cannot eat or sell their food in markets.

It doesn’t help that animals and humans are competing for food – no species eats sufficiently.

Image 9: Goats beside a home.

Many said that after a cyclone or a flood, they would only eat once a day. Their animals grow very thin without access to fodder.

The reason why this impact is especially harmful lies in the length of the impact and delays in food production. In order to be able to fish and farm, the water and the land must return to their normal salinity levels. For this, locals must wait for the water to recede and then for the rainfall to wash away the excess salt. Until the rain comes, people starve as they report forcing themselves to only have one meal a day. Waiting for the rain can take time…

Once it rains, salt dissolution is also not immediate. The land and fisheries must be prepared, seeds must be planted, and time should elapse for crops to grow. This can take up to 1-2 months. For those who lost assets such as their livestock, this might take longer.

Growing food takes time. But how do you eat and earn money between the disaster and the growing crop?

Overall, financial vulnerability in Bangladesh’s coastal regions is deeply intertwined with the instability of natural resources, particularly due to increasing soil salinity. When salinity levels rise beyond tolerable thresholds (e.g., above 4 dS/m), rice yields can decline sharply, often by more than half, significantly reducing agricultural productivity. As highlighted by The Business Standard, prolonged salinity intrusion can leave farmland unsuitable for cultivation for extended periods, further intensifying livelihood challenges. This decline in crop production directly undermines the primary source of income for coastal households and exacerbates food insecurity, pushing already vulnerable communities into deeper economic hardship (Illius, 2022).

The double burden for communities, where water is not only too saline to drink but also associated with waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and skin infections.

Image 10: A water technician standing beside a single-source water treatment plant.

After a flood or a cyclone, people also reported contaminated water beyond salinity. Drinking this water, whether it be humans or animals, brings diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, general weakness, and fever, as reported by the locals. Indeed, saline water intrusion makes the water extremely saline. The destruction of latrines and toilets creates a mixture of human and animal faeces in drinking ponds. The community did not report other types of contamination sources, but I wonder… What about plastic waste contamination? What about the contamination of dead bodies in the water? And what else…?

Ideally, both humans and their livestock drink from the water treatment plant. The community reported knowing that it is good for their animals to drink from the water treatment plant because they need their animals to remain healthy. However, infrastructure damage also includes water infrastructure destruction, which requires reparation and also involves delays.

In the meantime, most turn to water sources from other villages, which are often at considerable distances. Given the fact that these communities currently have no source of income, most turn towards adopting the pedestrian way instead of using means of transportation in order to avoid costs.

Combined with the injuries incurred during the disaster (often when running towards cyclone shelters, as the roads are unstable and there is no visibility on the paths), health status declines to worrisome levels.

These issues represent the clear interdependencies between humans, animals, and the environment.

Image 11: A multi-source water treatment plant.

Long-term consequences of floods and cyclones

People are already suffering from precarity, and insufficient access to nutritious and diverse food is not guaranteed. Mothers tend to prioritize eggs for their children to ensure sufficient protein, but that means less for themselves.

Sacrifices are made. In general, although the villagers eat 3 times a day, they report not eating enough fish, meat, and eggs. They also reported that vegetables have been becoming less tasty.

As our Friendship team discussed the short-term consequences of disasters, we came to understand that these impacts run deep, but they also run intersectionally. Because of the intertwined nature of humans, animals, and their environment, the indirect consequences are highly consequential and must be studied.

Long-term consequences are already made obvious. Local communities observe a shift in the composition of their soil. Compared to twenty years ago, the community reports noticing their environment changing, and they associate it with the natural disasters. They say the crops aren’t growing the way they used to. Less bananas and rice. But with a population depending so significantly on seasonality and weather patterns, a changing climate can be disastrous.

The community reports there are fewer birds and fewer trees, which they associate with the increase in riverbank erosions. They say the trees don’t grow as tall as they used to. This is worrisome as trees are precious commodities.

In the coastal belts, continuous exposure to high salinity makes it extremely difficult to continue farming the way they always used to. Without adequate drainage or fresh water for irrigation, the salt remains in the soil. As exposures persist, salt accumulates in the land, making it impossible to grow the usual crops and continuously exposing people and animals to high levels of sodium. This leaves communities stuck in a vicious cycle where their livelihoods are not able to thrive (Haque, 2006).

Sodium imbalance altered the soil and altered the environment, and therefore the source of livelihoods.

If rice does not grow anymore, what can you grow?

Image 12: A chicken egg incubator in a local household.

Beyond the short-term impacts of disasters, the long-term consequences of such events require a systems view to continue assessing the economic (shifts in employment), ecological (shifts in crops and tree growth), as well as health (appearance of new diseases and complications) impacts.

In the end, I asked: “So do things ever turn back to normal?” (referencing to how things used to be before the flood)

Their answer: “Things never go back to normal.”

Thank you for taking the time to read.

I am sincerely grateful to my team at Friendship, under the Climate Action sector.

Image 12: My Climate Action team from Friendship SPO.

Warmly yours,

Eloise

Disclaimer: All pictures apart from the World Map are taken by me during our field visits.

References:

European Environment Agency. (2024). Responding to climate change impacts on human health in Europe : focus on floods, droughts and water quality. Publications Office of the European Union.

Friendship. (2026). What we do. (Webpage). Access to link:

https://friendship.ngo/

Lauren O’Leary, Shouro Dasgupta and Elizabeth JZ Robinson. (2023). Policy brief Impacts of climate change on health in Bangladesh. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Health – London School of Economics and Political Science.

Haque, S. A. (2006). SALINITY PROBLEMS AND CROP PRODUCTION IN COASTAL REGIONS OF BANGLADESH. In Pak. J. Bot (Vol. 38, Issue 5).

Illius, S., & Azad, A. (2022, April 28). Salt tolerant rice varieties bring hope to Bangladesh farmers. The Business Standard.

ISCP Bangladesh. (2026). Impact of climate change on char communities. Thematic video, Friendship Secondary School, Batikamari. (Youtube video). Access to link:

IPCC, 2023: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34, doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001

Kathleen Tierny. (2018). The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems. Chapter 5 - Disaster as Social Problem and Social Construct from Part I - Problems Related to Health, Safety, and Security.

Panic M, Ford J. A Review of National-Level Adaptation Planning with Regards to the Risks Posed by Climate Change on Infectious Diseases in 14 OECD Nations. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013 Dec 12;10(12):7083–109.

Shamsuddoha M, Islam M, Haque MA, Rahman MF, Roberts E, Hasemann A, Roddick S. 2013. Local perspective on loss and damage in the context of extreme events: insights from cyclone affected communities in coastal Bangladesh. Center for Participatory Research and Development (CRPD), Dhaka, p 26

Uddin, M.N., Islam, A.S., Bala, S.K., Islam, G.T., Adhikary, S., Saha, D., Haque, S., Fahad, M.G.R. and Akter, R., 2019. Mapping of climate vulnerability of the coastal region of Bangladesh using principal component analysis. Applied geography, 102, pp.47-57.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand (2016). Bangladesh face aux changements climatiques. (Youtube video). Access to link : (77) BANGLADESH FACE AU CHANGEMENT CLIMATIQUE [FR] Film complet - YouTube