Ferdousi Akter’s family struggled to survive after a crumbling riverbank forced them to abandon their home and move to a new part of the island where they live off the Bangladesh coast.
Her husband worked as a day laborer on fishing boats, but earned too little to cover their expenses.
However, just over a year ago the five-member Akter family was one of 45 households offered land on Hatiya Island under a decade-long free lease by the Bangladesh Forest Department.
“I got a pond and a piece of land for 10 years,” Akter said. “Now I am farming fish in the pond and cultivating vegetables on my land, and getting benefits.”
She has already sold fish for 10,000 taka (US$120) and hopes to increase her earnings to 100,000 taka in the next few months.
Riverbank erosion made worse by heavy monsoon rains upstream had displaced the family repeatedly from their home on Hatiya, a 371km2 island in an estuary where the Meghna River flows into the northern Bay of Bengal.
A few years ago, the Akters moved to a coastal embankment in another part of the island, where they built a makeshift house.
The Forest Department is distributing fallow land formed from river silt to Bangladeshi families uprooted by coastal erosion.
Poor, landless people can use the plots without paying rent for 10 years, although they cannot live on the land, as much of it is outside protective embankments.
The land scheme, launched two years ago by the Bangladeshi government and the UN Development Program, covers Hatiya and some islands in Bhola District.
So far, 9 hectares of fallow land in Hatiya subdistrict have been divided between 45 families who have each received a plot with a pond to farm fish. Fruit and timber tree saplings have also been handed out to plant on the land.
The families have been trained to rear ducks and grow vegetables so that they can earn more money.
Demand to participate in the program is rising by the day, UN Development Program official Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan said.
Forestry officials said a new effort is under way to distribute another 20 hectares with ponds to 100 families in Hatiya, which has a population of about 500,000, and the scheme might be expanded further.
“There are huge fallow lands [belonging to] the Forest Department in the islands,” divisional forestry officer Islam Towhidul said.
Such land is at risk of being appropriated for financial gain by powerful people like politicians and landlords, Towhidul said.
Leasing the land to vulnerable families can protect it from encroachment, while tackling poverty, he said, adding that the department expects the 10-year leases to be extended.
When the Hatiya homestead and farmland of Mosharraf Hossaion, in his 60s, went under water in 2001 due to erosion by the Meghna River, his life turned into a nightmare.
“Once I had a happy family at Vendar village ... but riverbank erosion snatched away our home and all our belongings,” he said.
Leaving everything behind, Mosharraf’s family moved to Aladia Village in the same subdistrict where they built a house on an embankment right by the sea.
Two other villages were also flooded, uprooting more than 1,000 people, Mosharraf said.
They are now at the mercy of tidal surges and cyclones each year, as they live so close to the sea, he said.
Internal displacement is now common on Hatiya as a large part of the island is being devoured by riverbank erosion.
The phenomenon is particularly fierce during the monsoon rains when large volumes of water flow downstream.
Dewan Hossain, a fisherman in Hatiya, said seawater used to close in on the island’s embankment ahead of cyclones, but these days it reaches the embankment every day, flooding many houses on the seaward side, even during a normal tide.
“Seawater was far away from our island in the past, but now I feel the sea is coming nearer to us,” said Abdul Khaleque, 45, a resident of Manpura Island in Bhola.
One-third of the island has been swamped by the ocean in the past 20 to 25 years, he said.
Now the sea creeps in as far as the middle of the island through its canal system, affecting a vast area.
“Salinity intrusion is damaging our croplands, putting our lives and livelihoods in trouble,” Khaleque said.
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