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Revealing images from the front line of climate change in Bangladesh

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Aklima Parvin (19) keeps har face covered as she stands in a boat stranded on a mud flat. She faces discrimination due to her skin discolouration and pigmentation. She stopped going to college and spends her days alone since many of her friends are now married and have left the area.

Aklima Parvin

Fabeha Monir

THE summer monsoon in Bangladesh can spell trouble. When its rains are too heavy, major floods can tear through buildings and crops, stranding millions of people and claiming lives. But where rains are too light, drought can strike. Together with rising sea levels and coastal inundation, this leads to water sources becoming saltier, with all these effects heightened by climate change.

Fishermen come from various villages of Satkhira to the Munshiganj fish market to sell shrimp which later go to the capital.

A haul of shrimp

Fabeha Monir

These photos by journalist Fabeha Monir illustrate the impact that an increasingly unpredictable climate is having on the people of Bangladesh. “We don’t have to wait decades for a preview of our future transformed by rising seas,” she says. “It’s crucial to show the tangible and intangible loss and damage our peoples are facing.”

30 year old Md Yusuf Ali from Gabura is trying to grow vegetables in his yard. Due to salinity, it is very hard to grow seasonal vegetables but Yusuf is trying.

Md Yusuf Ali growing vegetables

Fabeha Monir

The population there has struggled to get support to deal with such issues – but that may be changing. Researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development have been visiting communities in Bangladesh whose livelihoods have been hit by climate change, in order to better understand how they can be helped.

A woman collects water from a pond excavated by the government with the help of a nonprofit organisation in the 'Dristinaondon' area.

A pond dug in Gabura by the government

Fabeha Monir

The images show (from top): Aklima Parvin, whose skin darkened due to consuming high-salinity water, exposing her to discrimination; a haul of shrimp, once pushed as an alternative for rice crops due to saltier waters, but today’s shrimp farms make seawater inundation and salinity problems more likely; Md Yusuf Ali growing vegetables – a challenge due to increased soil salinity and drought; a pond dug in Gabura by the government and a charity – a vital water source.

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