An investigation into the major environment and climate change policy issues in southwest coastal Bangladesh Open Access

The peril of global warming is increasingly affecting life and nature. Its impacts on socioeconomic activities and human life are palpable. Bangladesh, like many other developing countries, is yet to adopt a pragmatic sustainable policy measure to address these impacts that would ensure sustainable conservation of natural resources. Although larger policy decisions may influence conservation of natural resources, their sustainable use largely depends on local people and their exploitation of these resources (Badola et al., 2012; Drazkiewicz et al., 2015; Kalaba, 2016). The subject pertaining to climate change and environment always encompasses cross-cutting issues and thus cannot be tackled simply with sectorial approaches (Afroz et al., 2016; Khan et al., 2015). The trade-off between mitigation and adaptation have to be evaluated to optimize economic investments in ecosystem management approaches and technologies while managing climate change through policy interventions (Mushtaq et al., 2013). National Agricultural Policy 2013, National Environment Policy 1992, Renewable Energy Policy 2008 and other policies regarding climate change and environment demand cross-sectorial approaches such as water, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, industry, transport and so on. Such policy documents would then provide the bases for plans, prescriptions and a framework to maintain the dynamic economic growth while managing natural resources sustainably.

Well thought-out policy can help decision makers and managers make decisions in designing, implementing and evaluating integrated conservation and development project interventions (Awal, 2014; Roy et al., 2012). Following this, environmental policy has endeavoured to cover the geographical regions and development sectors with interventions. These sectors include agriculture, industry, health and sanitation, energy and fuel, flood control and irrigation, land, forest, wild life and biodiversity, fisheries and livestock and coastal and marine resources. A number of actors – both internal and external – play significant roles in policy formulation that reflects their attitudes towards the climate change and environmental issues in policy documents (Paul et al., 2013). The policy documents reflect an acceptable compromise among management strategies to guarantee improved environment and sustainable resource use. The policy emphasized the requirements of Environmental Impact Assessment in relevant concern. The policy documents also provided recommendations to ensure environment-friendly activities at local, regional and national levels on flood control, construction of embankments, river dredging and canal digging and in all other water resource development projects. In this regard, the policy suggested its concern in formulation and application of land use policy to be synchronized with sound and balanced environment that prevents land erosion and enhances preservation of soil fertility, ensures sound management of lands, provides compatibility with ecosystem processes and prevents salinity and alkalinity of soils (Abedin et al., 2012). The policy also emphasized the need for sustainable ecological balance on existing conservation, expansion and development of forests and measures to prevent shrinkage and depletion of forest lands and their resources (Roy, 2013). The protection of the mangrove ecosystem has also been considered.

Adopting policy without a corresponding actionable implementation plan and without adequate resources available, these activities would fail to protect the environment and to combat climate change effects (Maraseni et al., 2012). Zonal geo-ecological data and information are imperative to implement environmental policy to achieve its underlying activities. Hence, appropriate policy needs more effective and efficient resource allocation and planning based on environmental data and information. Policy then can only conserve and protect environment.

Bangladesh adopted, in principle, the concept of sustainable development and recognized the importance of economic development in its environmental policy with a promise to control environmental pollution and maintain ecological balance (Afroz et al., 2016). However, this is not supported by functional actions of policy implementations. In many cases, the policy is not fully active because of institutional and functional limitations. In general, lack of complementary operational rules, lack of fund and investment, lack of human resources in Departments of Forests and Environment, lack of interagency coordination and lack of community participation in policy formulation were suggested to be major deterrents in meaningful implementation of the policy (Drazkiewicz et al., 2015; Kalaba, 2016).

In the above context, the prime aim of this research is to decipher the issues of the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh pertaining to climate change and environmental policy documents through field studies, focus group discussion, workshop and keynote presentation. This study, thus, deals with the gaps in climate change and environmental policy documents and recommends their reflections in future development interventions.

The coastal area of Bangladesh covers 32 per cent of the country with three distinct regions – southeast mainly eastern hilly, central and southwest. This study covers 12,171 square kilometres of the southwest coastal region, covering 8.25 per cent of the total area of the country. This southwest coastal part of Bangladesh is located near to the Tropic of Cancer between 21.25° and 22.29° North latitudes and 89.46° and 89.60° East longitudes. The area represents a high-risk zone vulnerable to consequences of climate change and environmental disasters. Being one of the most populated regions in the world, Bangladesh has 161.3 million population in 2016. This southwest coastal area is one of the most populated regions of Bangladesh and has also been designated as the poverty hotspot of the country. The country’s population is estimated to increase to its highest level of 265.2 million by 2061 (BBS, 2015a; UNFPA, 2014). The dependence of the current and increased population on the natural system is unequivocal and deserves its right concern and consideration in local and regional planning and in central policies.

The major biophysical environment of southwest Bangladesh can best be represented by the Moribund delta, its Baor ecosystems, the Immature delta and its mangrove ecosystem – the Sundarbans (Datta, 2015).

Moribund component of the Ganges delta represents an area with recent transcendent deposition where the Ganges has abandoned the floodplain so that rivers carry only local run-off and seepages, not the Ganges water. The area is characterized by rivers choked with sand and unable to carry much water except when the Ganges is in high flood. This is because of high plains well above the normal flood-level not filling up because of the absence of the annual spread of sediments which is of such great importance in other parts of the delta.

The crescent shaped basins, mainly ox-bow lakes also called baors, have water throughout the year. The rivers are slightly entrenched and almost dry for most of the year. However, during the monsoon, they primarily drain the surface water. Gorai river is an exception that takes up a good quantity of the Ganges water into Possur and Baleshwar rivers. The northwest and the southwest of this sub-region are higher than the rest and their soils are also sandier.

The presence of about 5,488-hectare area as Baors – ox-bow lakes – a product of geomorphological processes – is a typical feature of the Moribund delta where the floodplain represents the cut-off portion of meander bends. These abandoned meander loops may fill over a period with fine-grained back-swamp materials which form clay plugs highly resistant to erosion by direct shearing but susceptible to slumping in large blocks when undermined. Baors are relatively stagnant water bodies and generally contain water throughout the year. The principal baors are Sagarkhali, Jaleshwor, Bokor Thampar, Khedapara, Rampur, Pathanpara, Katgarar, Jogini-Bhagini, Ichhamati, Baluhorer, Joydia, Marjat, Bukbhuna, Harina and Arol. They range in size from half a kilometre to 13 square kilometres. They cover the parts of Satkhira, Asasuni, Debhata, Kaliganj, Tala, Dumuria, Daulatpur, Terokhada, Mollarhat and Bagerhat Upazilas. The Baor ecosystems provide livelihoods to a large number of people in the Moribund delta.

The Immature delta lies to the south of the Moribund delta in the Ganges tidal floodplain as a broad belt of very low land of about 4,827 square kilometres. This area includes the Sundarbans – barely above the sea level. Whereas the elevation of the southern edge of the Moribund delta is about 3 metres – a few kilometres to its south – a land elevation of only 0.91 metre is experienced. Such low elevation may be due to insufficient deposition by the Ganges distributaries or by subsidence. It is presumed that the main distributaries of the Ganges never flowed through this region. The small ones did last a few centuries at most. The building up of this estuarine area is consequently not complete. Most evidence of subsidence also present in this region that suggests its role in creating depression. Thus, it seems that both the absence of adequate deposition and subsidence are responsible for the incomplete build-up of this region. The Immature delta falls in the Sundarbans in agro-ecological zonation of the country. Immature delta is very complicated because of its drainage pattern. However, it can be included in either of the four river systems such as Raimangal-Hariabhanga, Kapotakshi-Arpangasia-Malancha, Shibsha-Possur-Marjata and Madhumati-Haringhata. All of these rivers flow from north to south. According to some estimates, the total number of rivers and creeks exceeds more than 300 in the Immature delta (Datta, 2015). The channels in the Immature delta are tidal in nature, and thus, formed and maintained by the flow of water and sediments that they carry. Hence, it is the creator of its own geometrical properties and differs from other rivers. It is definite that the environmental and climate change issues are important for these tidal rivers with special background.

The Sundarabans mangrove ecosystem in the southwest Bangladesh is situated in the Immature delta having an area of 6,017 square kilometres. This is criss-crossed by a drainage network of more than 300 rivers and canals with an estimated total length of about 12,000 kilometres. The western border of the Sundarbans is marked by the Hariabhanga-Raimangal-Kalindi river system and the eastern border by the river Baleswar. The south is open to the Bay of Bengal, while the north is defined by a sharp interface with cultivated and inhabited lands. The Sundarbans Forest Biogeographic Zone is genetically different from the other three forest biogeographic zones of Bangladesh.

The ecological and socio-economic importance of the Sundarbans in policy documents is associated with its rich biodiversity and the ecosystem’s ecological services and products (Roy, 2013). The Sundarbans plays a role in trapping sediments and land formation. It protects life and habitats from extreme climatic events, nourishes aquatic life and supplies natural bio-resources. It has a significant role in mitigation and adaptation in minimizing loss due to rapid changes in the climatic pattern.

The study investigated and analysed climate change and environmental issues of the southwest coastal Bangladesh through focus group discussion and workshop. Other methods such as stakeholder consultation was applied through field visits to triangulate the data and information. The field visits were done purposively in Shyamnagar, Mongla and Rampal Upazilas of Shatkhira and Bagerhat districts of this region. Also, these Upazilas are situated at the periphery to the Sundarbans. A majority of the population of these Upazilas sustains their livelihoods directly or indirectly on the Sundarbans.

Shyamnagar was randomly selected for the focus group discussion. This Upazila is situated in southwest of Bangladesh between 22.20′′ 3.96 N and 89.6′ 29.59′′E. It occupies an area of 1,968.24 square kilometres, with 82.44 per cent of the land area covered with forest. There were 318,254 residents in the Upazila in 2011 with only 48.6 per cent literate population aged 7 years and above (BBS, 2015b). The average household size is 4.39 with 1.43 per cent decadal population growth rate (BBS, 2014). The area experiences a range of natural disasters such as cyclones, tidal surges, storms and saline water intrusion. Water logging is prominent occurrences in this area (Abedin et al., 2012). In addition, land use and land-cover change are other major concerns here (Rahman et al., 2014). Only 35 per cent of the population are engaged without any dominant livelihood activities. In total, 27 and 7 per cent of them are engaged in agriculture and service, respectively, with insignificant employment share (1 per cent) in industry (BBS, 2015a). Hence, the livelihood and economy of Shyamnagar’s remaining inhabitants are based on shrimp culture, crop farming and the natural resources of the Sundarbans. Since the implementation of the polders (circular embankments), no large-scale government projects have been implemented there apart from some roads constructed by the Local Government Engineering Department (Rabbani et al., 2013).

A focus group discussion was arranged with local inhabitants aged between 30 and 60 years with 25 per cent female participants. Following Roy and Gow (2015), their livelihood patterns, local knowledge and experience in conservation were considered for participation in the discussion. The participants were about 51 per cent literate and belonged to the lower economic group. A majority of the participants (72 per cent) were totally dependent on the resources of the Sundarbans for their livelihood support. The rest were partially supported by the Sundarbans resources. Fishing and crab collection from the small creeks in the Sundarbans were the primary occupation for those totally dependent on the Sundarbans. However, a significant number of the participants were involved in agriculture and manual labour. The female participants were mainly housewives. It has been noted that around 35 per cent people of these unions own shrimp gheers. The local people also collect timber, fuel wood, honey, goran and golpata from the Sundarbans when the opportunity arises. Often forced displacement takes place when resources are scarce. Most of the participants do not own livestock because of the lack of grass lands. However, around 63 per cent of the participants rear a few cows and goats and some have poultry.

This area is one of the most disaster-prone localities of southwest coastal Bangladesh. About 74 per cent of the participants have access to warning systems; however, only 20 per cent have a safe shelter (such as a cyclone shelter) during hazards. Potable water is scarce, and they have to collect water either from Pond-Sand-Filter or from ponds, travelling a long distance. Medical facilities are meagre (8 per cent), and most of the people depend on “quacks” – untrained physicians. A vast majority of the participants are not informed of any management endeavour of the Sundarbans from the government (Roy et al., 2013). However, 98 per cent of the participants are eager to seek alternative occupations rather than depending on the resources of the Sundarbans.

Discourse analysis is vital for enhancing strong partnership between local and central level institutions to combat environmental and climate change threats. Stakeholder workshop is considered as a means to tailor a local plan to national priorities. Through open discussions, workshop participants provided issues to create a link between local and national planning on environment and climate change issues. Participants looked at the solution of co-ordination failure and planning instruments. Climate change consequences threaten people’s livelihood of coastal Bangladesh and warrant urgent inclusion of such concerns in economic framework. The current trend of growth has been achieved through environmental expenses. Thus, to ensure secured environmental amenity and quality of life, climate change issues and environmental concerns need to be incorporated in national policy discourses. The workshop provided an avenue for this discourse analysis. The existing policies do not ensure the conservative use of the country’s natural resources that is a pre-requisite for ecosystem management that ensures sustainable growth and livelihoods. Hence, mainstreaming of poverty, environment and climate change issues in local and national policy is an imperative effort. Thereby, it was expected that the workshop would review the prevailing gaps in environmental and climate change issues at the central level and, thus, would contribute to growth and sustainable development in southwest coastal Bangladesh.

A day-long workshop was applied to understand from micro-level policy gaps’ impacts on livelihoods to national-level environmental and climate change policy influence. The workshop offered the opportunity for meeting the stakeholders and sharing their views. The workshop was held in August 2015 in Khulna, Bangladesh.

The deliberation of the workshop was covered under three sessions: inaugural and keynote presentation, discussion and wrap up. To gather information on impacts on partnerships, collaborations and cross-boundary issues, academics, resource managers, researchers, NGO practitioners, communities and civil society members were involved in the workshop for discourse analysis. Seventeen participants (22 per cent) from different stakeholder categories out of 77 participants took part in the discussion session. Participants from a wide range of institutions both private and public and a number of grass-root participants participated in the workshop. Participants are categorized in Table I.

This session was lively and interactive with genuine engagement of the vibrant participants. The discussion was focussed on the current state of environment and climate change of the southwest part of Bangladesh.

Major concerns of focus group and workshop participants are presented and discussed in this section. They were concerned with the rapid environmental changes in the southwest region. These are due to policy failures to guide appropriate development interventions from the perspective of long-term sustainability paradigm.

Participants of the workshop and focus group discussion mentioned shift of local people to urban cities and other parts of the country due to lack of livelihood opportunities:

This finding was found valid with recent lower annual compound population growth rate (0.14 per cent) against higher decadal growth rate (1.43 per cent). It was surprising that the population growth rate decreased in recent years (Salauddin and Ashikuzzaman, 2012). This compound growth rate is also much lower than the country’s annual 1.47 per cent population growth rate (BBS, 2015a). Salauddin and Ashikuzzaman (2012) found that shifting settlements in this area is common due to climate change effects with more frequent disasters and reckless behaviour of the rivers in recent years and losing cultivable land and occupation. About 15 million people in Bangladesh alone could be on the move by 2050 because of climate change causing the worst migration here in human history (IUCN, 2015). The rice fields associated with the shrimp farms became infertile due to salinity intrusion. In total, 81 per cent of households experience high salinity now, compared to only 2 per cent a decade ago (Rabbani et al., 2013). Consequently, farmers could not grow crops because of this soil degradation. Water logging becomes more prolonged because natural drainage systems are blocked due to coastal embankments, land grabbing and siltation on the riverbeds. Hence, salinity intrusion occurs in both agricultural land and has made this land unproductive for agricultural production. Crop land is decreasing due to increases in shrimp culture. This again decreases vegetation cover attributed to both anthropogenic activities and natural disasters (Rahman et al., 2014). Also, as the respondents mentioned, most of the native fish species have become endangered because of increased salinity level in both surface and ground water. Besides, construction of coastal embankments degraded the natural breeding grounds, and fish habitats and natural fish production decreased (FAO, 2005). Therefore, salinity intrusion significantly influences livelihood strategies of the people (Haider and Hossain, 2013). Moreover, the problems of access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities persist in this area.

Most of the participants expressed how the hydrologic regime of the southwest Bangladesh has been altered totally by the construction of 37 polders, 1,566 kilometres of coastal embankment and 282 sluice gates in Khulna, Satkhira and parts of the Jessore district. This construction work was initiated in response to a report by Krug Mission when the then Water Master Plan in 1964 introduced compartmentalized polder/enclosure system in tidal areas of the southwest part mostly in lower Moribund and upper Immature deltas during the sixties of the past century (Datta, 2015). The major driver for such a megaproject was conceptualized on green revolution paradigm to restrict flooding to ensure food security for the increasing population. The interventions were in the form of constructing embankments encircling tidal floodplains in order to secure crop against regular tidal flood and salinity. Such intervention has continued until now by construction of embankments from 7,555 to 13,000 kilometres lengths (Datta, 2015). This includes around 4,000 kilometres of coastal embankment, around 4,600 kilometres of river bank embankment and around 4,500 kilometres of embankment along small streams, creeks and wetlands such as baors. Moreover, around 7,907 infrastructures including sluice gates pertaining to water management, thousands of regulators and 1,802 closures have been constructed during the past few decades. The coastal area has also been restructured with 135 polders, 1,488 regulators and sluice gates, 108 bridges and around 923 other water management related infrastructure (Datta, 2015). These infrastructural activities have not taken care of the amount of sediments that the water is carrying and is in conflict with the natural tidal processes responsible for nourishing and generating land in the delta. These structures enhance trapping of sediments on water channels by restricting the movement of sediments to the floodplains and are considered to be highly vulnerable to climate change induced hazards (Mondal et al., 2013). Consequently, the floodplains are starved of sediments. Coastal waterways cannot be simplified through the nature of actions of the water transport systems due to sedimentation. Hence, proper design and construction have been identified through dredging the canals and river channels (Islam et al., 2015):

The formation of landforms becomes incomplete and easily falls prey to even small-scale natural hazards. The agricultural production increased, and there was a kind of positive social impacts of the intervention. However, there were several forms of loss such as erosion of local deep water crop variety, loss of floral and faunal components, decrease in floodplain fisheries production, lower economic return, severe drainage congestion due to siltation of rivers and the degradation of the Sundarbans. As a result, the ecosystem services have severely been reduced in this region as policy failed to recap such reduction.

Participants opined that policy failures have adverse effects on environment and livelihoods. The notable one is disastrous waterlogging. Waterlogged conditions are aggravated due to non-deposition of sediments, land subsidence and physical compaction of sediments within the polders (Awal, 2014). Certain estimates show that over 106,000 hectares of land area in the Moribund and Immature delta became permanently waterlogged as a consequence to the construction of polders. This water logging condition is due to polderization and has become a major environmental concern, including increased salinity due to evaporation and capillary action. The agricultural land became infertile for rice, floral and faunal composition and was unable to support livelihoods of local communities.

A compartmentalized polder or enclosure system in the southwest tidal areas under coastal embankment project was introduced in 1960 (World Bank, 2012). Many of the rivers, channels and canals in this area lost their conveyance abilities causing severe drainage congestion due to the consequence of this continuing process of sedimentation over the years. Participants experienced the polders as the main cause of water-logging and presented their reasoned arguments for breaching or cutting away polders to allow tidal flows. Their logic was that if tidal flows can be made free, the navigability of the rivers will be restored. The enclosed lands will be free from water-logging, alluvium will accumulate inside the polders and, as a result, the level of land will rise (Paul et al., 2013). This concept is known as Tidal River Management (TRM) system. TRM is a process that takes care of nourishing the coastal floodplain ecosystems with sediments and nutrients (Awal, 2014; Paul et al., 2013):

Rainwater harvesting is an increasingly common practice in many countries of the world including Bangladesh (Thomas et al., 2014). Rainwater harvesting is considered as a low-cost alternative potable water supply option along the coastal regions (Islam et al., 2014). Because of increasing salinity intrusion, potable water scarcity became severe in this region. Bangladesh should promote this technique because of sea level rise and other climate vulnerabilities. Growing population demands and a decreasing supply of available freshwater make harvested rainwater an attractive alternative for potable and non-potable water especially for irrigation uses (Thomas et al., 2014). As concerns over climate change increase and water resources become more stressed, individuals continue to modify their dwellings and devise systems to use harvested rainwater. Rainwater can be harvested for agricultural and other uses by using rivers and baors as a need for easier and less costly techniques. Sumon and Kalam (2014) indicated that about 15 per cent of the total water supply can be met in urban areas by harvested rainwater to reduce groundwater demand.

This functionality of the polders and reduction in agriculture have changed the land-use pattern in favour of shrimp aquaculture (Afroz et al., 2016). Earlier, shrimp culture was a traditional practice and usually restricted to within land between the levees and the river channels. However, since the early seventies of the past century, farmers and investors were encouraged to be involved in shrimp farming within polders in response to high overseas demand. Thus, government policies played a favourable role and ushered the shrimp era. However, debates, disparities and criticisms have followed this sector since its initiation. Extensive shrimp culture was not popular among most farmers because it did not secure the food in terms of grains availability. The profit generated from shrimp exports has also not been shared equitably throughout the chain. The shrimp culture is characterized by social inequality, disparity, rice versus shrimp conflict, conflict of power and privileges, ecological threats and damages, insufficient structure, lack of clarity in understanding, people’s protest and bloodshed and conflict on saline water breach. Gender disparity, occupational segmentation, wage inequality and increased job insecurity for women have also been identified. All of these indicate inadequate and inappropriate implementation of policies.

The participants in the workshop were concerned with the rapid changes in climatic pattern and understand that the major consequences of such change may manifest in the coastal southwest Bangladesh in the following forms:

• the coastal Bangladesh will severely be damaged by frequent tropical cyclones of higher strength;

• the erratic rainfall will aggravate river bank erosion and will accelerate sedimentation in river beds leading to drainage congestion and water logging;

• the coastal land that is already at a lower elevation with reference to sea level will submerge, and saline water intrusion will increase in surface and groundwater due to the sea level rise;

• such hydrodynamic changes due to climate change will have significant impact on the Sundarbans and will increase the consequences of the polder systems that have already been experienced by southwest coastal Bangladesh; and

• displacement of hundreds of thousands of people will take place and forced migration will occur.

The genuine options to minimize the impacts of climate change on the environment need to be conceptualized in the policies that are responsible in sustaining the southwest coastal ecosystem processes. Participants’ observations of the possible impacts by rapid changes in the climatic pattern show that the controls of the changes are of exogenous origin. Thus, these can best be addressed by geo-genic natural instruments. The polder and enclosure system deserves a rethought of its existence in its application of coastal drainage basin management.

Consequently, it is observed that the major concerns from the stakeholders’ discussions were focussed on the paradigm shift of the physical environment and its vulnerability in the realm of rapid changes in the climatic pattern.

Environmental changes in the study area and their causes can be looked upon as disturbances of the social and ecological systems (Khan et al., 2015). These disturbances may be external and internal. External disturbances are disasters and land-cover changes are caused by natural factors. Internal disturbances are changes in land use due to social, political and economic factors. These changes adversely affect not only social and ecological resilience but also the people and their livelihoods.

This study observes migration of local people in this area. Various disasters like cyclone Aila and Sidr decreased income and agricultural production among families dependent on agriculture. Construction of shrimp ponds and infrastructure for shrimp farms is one of the reasons behind the intrusion of saline water and reduction of cultivable land (Shameem et al., 2014). An additional cause for increasing river and groundwater salinity is the upstream diversion due to Farrakka barrage in the Ganges in India. Although high salinity levels have existed in this area since for many years, the salinity of the study area has increased 3.02 per cent in past four decades (Miah, 2010). Reduction of arable land put pressure on other livelihood options. Most of the local tree species have become threatened and affected by water logging and increasing salinity. This has reduced livelihoods of the resource-dependent community (Roy, 2013, 2014). Destruction of habitat and loss of biodiversity of fish species occurs when shrimp fry collectors catch fry from rivers adjacent to Sundarbans, affecting the regional ecosystem. Similarly, loss of species and habitats also resulted from land-use changes in upstream catchments (Roy et al., 2013). Hence, habitat fragmentation by human interventions threatened the biodiversity of forested areas. This increasing salinity is worsened by occurrences of disasters like cyclones, storm surges and water logging and thus often significantly enhances the changes in land-use activities which encourages shrimp farming, restricts rice cultivation, creates water crisis and decreases employment opportunities. All of these are causing migration of local people to urban and other parts of the country.

Participants, thus, identified the TRM as the most effective method to raise land and make it cultivable, mitigate the water-logging crisis, increase the navigability of rivers and protect the coastal region from the threat of sea level rise. This process relieves drainage congestion in the river beds as well as waterlogging in the floodplain and thus ensures not only good harvest of grains but also favours a vibrant aquatic community such as fish. Moreover, TRM generates minimum conflict with natural processes responsible for building the coastal land and thus sustenance of coastal environment (Kibria, 2011).

Rainwater harvesting through natural storage systems such as the Baors is another option that will address the availability of low total dissolved solids water in the coastal ecosystems. It is to be noted that Baors are repositories of aquatic species and support livelihood of thousands of population living around them.

An environment-friendly transport system is necessary. Many coastal rivers have died down due to a lack of navigability and negligence in river transport system. The river transport needs to be rejuvenated to ensure free river flow – a better option against tackling impact of climate change – that would supply water, sediments and nutrients to the coastal ecosystems.

Liberating water flow will reduce unwanted sedimentation. Polderization disconnects many freshwater links to the Sundarbans and causes sedimentation on its river beds. For instance, Bhadra-Pasur river system restricts supply of nutrients and freshwater to the ecosystem, rendering the Sundarbans a resource constraint ecosystem. This limits its livelihood support potentiality. Restoration and maintenance of essential ecological functions including restoring river flow to be recognized for ensuring the maintenance of ecosystem goods and services of the Sundarbans. The stock of marine fishing in the Bay of Bengal originates in the Sundarbans. It also provides other ecological functions of global importance such as carbon sequestration. The Sundarbans is a vibrant natural instrument and a potential natural defence against the impact of climate change. Thus, the biogeochemical constituents and freshwater from rivers are the bases of policy change for sustained conservation of the Sundarbans on which the life and ecosystem depends.

The groundwater is a scarce resource in the study area. There are many factors responsible for salinity of coastal waters – both surface and ground. Seawater is the major contributor in this regard. Other contributors are irrigation by brackish-water from tube-wells, from tidal channels, monsoon inundation and shrimp aquaculture. Thus, extraction of groundwater in this area is to be restricted on the one hand. On the other hand, use of surface water is to be encouraged by maintaining abandoned river channels and constructing and maintaining surface water reservoirs such as lakes and Baors.

Infrastructure-oriented intervention for disaster risk reduction (DRR) such as cyclone shelter is common in Bangladesh. It was experienced that cyclone shelters and polders were unable to provide protection against extreme climatic events during 2007 and 2009 storm surges. This suggests that non-structural DRR methods should be considered as important in this area. Shrimp cultivation needs to be prohibited within polders. Hence, there is an urgent need for land use zoning in this area.

The southwest of Bangladesh, with easy access opportunities, is becoming a hub for industrial growth. New industrial enclaves are joining with existing ones. Besides, the presence of Mongla port – an important entry of maritime activities – is a significant source of pollution. Hence, discharge from the industrial enclaves may be contained by zoning the enclaves. Discharge from the port may be taken care of with special arrangements too.

Southwest coastal Bangladesh’s exposure to growing hazards of climate change needs policy change in the perspective of its exposure to current environmental hazards and its growing development needs. The vital policy measure required is to start making more detailed assessments of the current physical, economic and human geography of the southwest physiographic region. This will provide a comprehensive factual basis for outlining current and future development in the policy document.

In this connection, the major environmental and climate change sensitive policy issues in southwest Bangladesh are an affiliated sustenance of natural processes that are nourishing the regional ecosystems and guarantee the sustainable supply of natural resources on which the population survives. Policies relating to this life support system need to be considered with an ethical non-anthropocentric view. The plight of the southwest community deserves its right reference of traditional water management, rainwater harvesting, an environment-friendly transport system, liberating water flow, the ecological vibrant Sundarbans, judicious groundwater management, concern for forced climate displaced population, an environment-friendly industrial growth and application of DRR in policy documents. This study, thus, puts forward the following recommendations for consideration:

• creation of alternative livelihood opportunities is a prerequisite to combat climate migration;

• people’s concept in water management such as TRM is to be obeyed in all functional activities related to coastal water management;

• rainwater harvesting through natural storage systems such as Baors and abandoned water bodies are be encouraged;

• an environment-friendly transport system such as water ways to be given more emphasis in coastal regions;

• water flow must be liberated as a matter of priority from the encroaching coastal infrastructures such as embankments, polderization, sluice gates and other enclosures;

• any changes in the ecosystem processes of the Sundarbans as – a vibrant natural instrument and a potential defence from climate change – must be banned; also, an alternative livelihood support system needs to be developed for those who depend on the Sundarbans for their livelihood;

• extraction of the groundwater – as a scarce resource in southwest coastal Bangladesh – is to be restricted and use of surface water is to be encouraged;

• shrimp cultivation is to be prohibited within locations where the flow of water is restricted;

• non-structural DRR methods are to be encouraged; and

• discharge and emission from industrial enclaves are to be zoned so that pollution should not interfere with the processes of fragile coastal ecosystems especially of the Sundarbans.

To consider the above recommendations, environmental and climate change policy changes are inevitable to guide future investment. The government should take urgent initiatives for geo-information-based development interventions as an adequate and proactive response to environmental management and development. This is expected to overcome policy failures and can combat future climate change impacts in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh.

This research has been financed by the Support to Sustainable and Inclusive Planning project of the United Nations Development Programme, Bangladesh (grant number: 87,044). Editor of this Journal and two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for their in-depth and thoughtful comments that significantly improved this article. The author thanks Professor Dilip Kumar Datta of Khulna University and Mowdudur Rahman of Centre for Coastal Environment Conservation (CCEC) at Khulna for providing valuable comments. Kathy Mitchell at Mirambeena Children’s Centre of Australia is much appreciated for editing the final manuscript.