Char Atra: living with climate change – transcript

This is Char Atra, a river island in Bangladesh. The people I met here are having to cope with deeper and longer lasting floods due to climate change.

It’s a busy community – its 9,500 residents rely on the river for fishing, washing, and getting their produce to market.

The river is a source of life, where kids muck about when the midday sun gets too much. But it’s the same river that destroys their lives when the floods come.

In this photo, you get a feel for the lay of the land – a flat and sandy landscape, dotted with huts made of bamboo, or corrugated iron for the lucky ones.

Everywhere you look you see how people have adapted their lives to the floods – raised homes, flood centres, or here, a raised pathway.

You might be thinking this place looks pretty peaceful. But things can change dramatically. As we took this photo, the sky was getting dark and a storm rolled in.

Within half an hour, the school playing field was under water. I dread to think what happens when that rain lasts for days or weeks.

This hit home for me when we took a photo of the school playing field, and compared it with a photo taken during the floods of 2007.

The whole village had basically become part of the river…

People rely heavily on fishing here. When I arrived at sunrise, the sheer number of fishing boats on the river was staggering.

It’s a tough life. The average wage is less than £1 a day, and the fishermen are increasingly vulnerable to the changing climate.

And the farmers are vulnerable too. Those that can’t find work end up as labourers in nearby cities, leaving the women to look after the family for long periods.

And it was the women here that really left an impression on me. They just get on with it all – looking after the family, earning a living, and preparing for the floods.

They really are at the centre of community life, and Oxfam focuses a lot of its work through the women’s groups that have been established.

The women told me that they didn’t used to be so active in community life, but by supporting each other they’ve really grown in confidence.

This is just a quick snapshot of life here. I’ll leave you with a glimpse of the other side of our camera.

For me, the photo sums up how friendly the women of Char Atra are. Of course they wanted to see themselves on camera…

But they were also curious to find out where we’re from, and tell us their stories – which you can explore via the links at the bottom of this page.

And if you do just one thing, I’d really urge you to watch Sufia’s moving story – for me, it underlines exactly why Oxfam is working on this issue.

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