The perfect storm

The sea was precious and provided their livelihoods. One day it rose up and took all that was precious. Rohan Ziad tells their story.

Dhaka, Nov 8 (bdnews24.com)—The Bay had risen in a sudden surge and taken away the livelihoods of Mamtaz Begum, Siddikur Rahman, Surja Banu and Barek Dafadar.

"I was widowed with four children in 1999, when my [husband]'s fishing trawler went missing in a storm," said Begum testifying at a mock climate tribunal on Monday.

She had to send her eldest, seven-year old Babul to work for just Tk 20 per day.

"My heart wrenches when I see a tired Babul coming home every evening."

Life was not easy for her, but she had some sort of social security as she had moved to her mother's as a widow.

But, Begum's woes were not over. In 2007, cyclone Sidr swept away her home as well as her mother.

Life went on. Begum now works as a maid and lives in a relief shelter while her eldest son Babul is becoming skilled as a fisherman, just like his father.

But she becomes panic-stricken when she fears that one day the sea might also take away her son.

Begum's fear turned into reality for Surja Banu. Her only son Hanif, who was the sole earner of the family, went missing that same year when his fishing trawler fell into a storm.

Her husband Kamej Hawlader, who is in his late-sixties, has to go out for work but his physical condition does not allow him to continue for more than two days.

"We got some help after the disaster, but that doesn't compensate the loss of my son," she told the audience of the climate tribunal bursting into tears.

Fisherman Siddikur Rahman was stuck in a jail in India for almost nine months, after his trawler sank in a storm in 2005.

His family sold all its land including the house, to bring him back, but all that money went in vain as they landed in the hands of touts.

After a lot of diplomatic initiative, Rahman, along with 12 other fishermen, returned home.

"I felt lucky to be alive after the storm, but when I came back I found that the whole family was in a total mess."

Rahman quit his vocation of a fisherman and now works as a carpenter.

He said that the security of his life was more important than his income from fishing.

Earlier they used to see a big storm every 5 to 10 years but now they strike two or three times a year.

"No signal can warn about these storms."

Barek Dafadar used to own three fishing trawlers and employed more than 40 people.

"But, now I work in other people's trawlers. It's odd but what to do?" he said at the shadow tribunal.

A cyclone in 2005 had two of his trawlers missing and he had to sell the last one to repay loans for investing in those trawlers.

A fisherman for almost 22 years, Barek holds the changing sea responsible for his fate.

"I used to be very cautious and never thought of sailing in bad weather or whenever a signal was hoisted."

His grandfather and father were also fishermen, but he doesn't want his sons to take up the vocation.

"It's worse than ever. Earlier we used to get fish in five hours, but now it takes a trip of 15 to 20 hours to catch fish and there's the unpredictable sea."

The UK-based NGO, Oxfam organised the tribunal, aiming to raise awareness and seeking to highlight the impacts on the lives of people in Bangladesh.

The Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL), an alliance of local NGOs and citizens' organisations, coordinated the event, held Monday at the city's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

After hearing testimonies of the victims, the shadow tribunal held developed countries responsible for devastating the lives of fishermen communities in coastal Bangladesh.

The five member jury headed by Bangladesh Human Rights Commission chief Mizanur Rahman also observed that climate change was responsible for the misery to these communities and held the Annexe-1 countries (as in Kyoto Protocol), who are large emitters, to be responsible.

They tribunal also heard from a two experts of climate change and international law in an effort to establish a link between the science of climate change, its national and international legal aspects and the on-going multilateral negotiations.

Unfortunately, the world still lacks a legally binding international instrument which could facilitate compensation for climate change affected countries by the developed world, the carbon emitters, according to law expert Ahmed Ziauddin.

"Bangladesh as a state can file its complaints in the Hague-based UN international court, the WTO and UNESCO, but there's no way to move individually for such damages," he said.

A climate change act as well as an article in this regard should be included in the constitution of Bangladesh, added Ziauddin.

"There is no legal definition of climate change in Bangladesh," he added.

Climate change expert Ahsan Uddin Ahmed told the tribunal that the developed nations ask for specific accounts of damage due to climate change in an apparent effort to shirk their responsibilities.

"It's scientifically proven that climate change is responsible for damages, but it is simply impossible to establish a separate account."

After hearing testimonies, the jury recommended formulation of a separate law and inclusion of an article in the constitution on climate change.

The jury ruled that since the developed nations were mostly responsible for climate change, it was their liability to pay for the consequent mitigation.

It also observed that human rights of the coastal people had been violated by the affects of climate change.

The jury panel included MPs Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Tarana Halim, Hasanul Huq Inu and economist Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.

bdnews24.com/rhn/ta/2345h