Global warming has dried up water resources in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh, forcing thousands of Indigenous tribal people out of their traditional settlements.
While rural and coastal areas have already borne the brunt of floods and cyclones, climate change has wreaked havoc on the South Asian country’s high-altitude region.
Environmentalists say the Hill Tracts regions – which cover 10 percent of Bangladesh’s land areas – are in danger of losing their water streams.
“A few years ago, villagers here grew an abundance of rice and vegetables and the streams provided fish and drinking water,” said Manu Ching, who lives in the hill district of Bandarban’s Lulain village. “But not any more.”
“[Things] have changed, rainfalls have become very erratic, not as it used to be, so we are unable to grow seasonal crops any more. Climate has changed,” Ching added.