Rafiqul Montu

Weekend Reads
Many more climate migrants come to Chittagong and face new climate risks. Millions of people came to Chittagong in the last few decades from different areas of the coast of Bangladesh for the need of livelihood. Most of them have lost all their properties including houses due to cyclones, river erosion or floods.
"Where do we go now? 25 years ago I lost my home and came to this city for livelihood. I came to this city empty-handed and started a new life. This city has sustained ...

Nurjahan Begum is sitting on a plastic chair in front of her house in a densely populated settlement on the banks of Karnaphuli river in Chittagong. More than half of the chair is submerged under water. Today, hundreds of families in Begum’s neighbourhood were once more trapped in flood water for nearly five hours.
The daily life of many people in Bangladesh’s second largest city is centering around the tides and the rise and fall of the flooding. The sea is 16 kilometres away. Flood water en...

Rafiqul Islam Montu is a journalist who writes extensively on the hardships the people of coastal Bangladesh face due to climate change. While his frontline journalism spurs local administration into finding solutions, it has brought him multiple awards. The Coastal Journalism Network he started helps journalists report about climate-induced coastal issues.
What drew you to journalism, coastal journalism in particular?
I was born in Barguna, a small coastal district in Bangladesh. There is a ...

Rafiqul Islam Montu is crafting stories on the dire effects of climate change in Bangladesh, urging action to address the urgent climate crisis.
Arshad Ali, a 60-year-old resident of Dhalchar, a coastal island in Bangladesh, pointed to the middle of the river where his grandfather's house once stood. There is absolutely no sign of the house now.
“From being a rich family, we are down to zero. Now we have nothing left,” he said, his tears choking his words.
Along the coast of Bangladesh, there...

Kalapara (Patuakhali), Bangladesh
On a hot and humid summer afternoon, with pre-monsoon clouds hovering in the horizon, a group of farmers walked back home carrying baskets full of ripe papaya. Their tired lean bodies, drenched in sweat, glistened in the midday sun.
Not too far away, some farmers were busy harvesting papaya, bitter gourd, cucumber, pepper, gourd, and pumpkin from their lush green fields. They were in a tearing hurry to complete the task before sundown as the fresh produce had...

Cyclones have irrevocably impacted lives on the country’s south-west coast.
Sawkat Ali, 72, lives along the Shakbaria river at Matiavhanga village in Koyra upazila of Khulna district in the Sundarbans delta on the southwest coast of Bangladesh. He had been a paddy farmer all his life like many others of his clan and there was little to complain about in life. But all that changed in 2009 as Cyclone Aila left a trail of destruction, breached embankments and left the entire region submerged in ...

The women-led initiative in a remote tribal area shows the way ahead for climate adaptation.
Until recently, the womenfolk of Bangladesh’s Rangamati hill district would spend most of their day collecting water from a valley and carrying it up and across treacherous mountain paths. Then, a landslide in 2017 changed the local water channel and worsened the water shortage to such an extent that people started leaving the village.
But last year, the villagers implemented a project that transforme...

Anwar Hossain ist besorgt, als er im August 2022 auf die Wolken blickt, die sich im Westen zusammenbrauen. Er fürchtet, dass heftige Winde und Regenfälle aufkommen und dass der Fluss anschwillt. Dann könnte der Reisbauer seine Ernte nicht einbringen. Träte der Fluss gar vollends über die Ufer, würde die Ernte überdies zerstört. Seiner Familie stünde ein hartes Jahr bevor. Doch Hossains Sohn Omar Farooq kann den Vater beruhigen, indem er mit seiner Google-App auf dem Handy die Hochwassersituat...

Twelve days before the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, Cyclone Sitrang hurtled through coastal Bangladesh on October 24 night, leaving paddy fields submerged and millions displaced.
All the paddy in the field of Abdur Rahim Mollah, a farmer of Padma village of Barguna Sadar Upazila, was damaged by Cyclone Sitrang. All photos: Rafiqul Islam Montu
Badarkhali (Barguna), Bangladesh
The sufferings of Abdur Rahim Molla know no end. In May and June earli...

2022 के संयुक्त राष्ट्र जलवायु परिवर्तन सम्मेलन यानी COP27 से ठीक बारह दिन पहले 24 अक्टूबर की रात को चक्रवात सितरंग तटीय बांग्लादेश से टकराया। इसकी वजह से धान की फसल बर्बाद हो गई और खेत पानी से लबालब भर गए। अमन धान की फसल को बड़े पैमाने पर नुकसान पहुंचने की सूचना मिली है।
बदरखली (बरगुना), बांग्लादेश। अब्दुर रहीम मोल्ला की मुश्किलों का कोई अंत नहीं है। इस साल की शुरुआत में मई और जून में बरगुना जिले में उनके तटीय गाँव पद्मा को बाढ़ का सामना करना पड़ा और उन्हें अपना घर-बाहर छोड़कर दूसरी जगह आश्र...

Charfasson (Bhola), Bangladesh: Strong waves gradually wash away the island at the mouth of the sea, and with it the houses, fields, buildings, markets, roads, everything.
Over two decades of constant erosion, the island's settlement area has shrunk from 15 sq km to just 3.5 sq km. The coastal island of Dhal Char, nestling in the delta of the Meghna river in Bangladesh, is about to disappear. About 3,500 families, with about 17,000 people, have dwindled to about 1,000 families with 8,000 peop...

Two Bangladeshis have made it into the list of "100 Most Influential People in Climate 2022/23" by Apolitical.

They are British-Bangladeshi Scientist Dr Saleemul Huq and Environment Journalist Rafiqul Islam Montu.

Apolitical - a British non-profit organisation and global network for the government helping public servants find the ideas, people and partners they need to solve the hardest challenges - made the announcement on its official website on Friday (4 November).

The global policy watchd...

Abdul Momin poured his life savings into a house in Bangladesh's Sylhet district. Now, his new home has been sitting under floodwaters for over a month. "All my property was lost in the flood," the 40-year-old agriculture laborer tells Treehugger. "I'm living in someone else's house. I don't know when I can go to my home."
The Sylhet region was hit with two devastating floods this year that impacted 6 million people, according to local administration sources. The cumulative impact of both flo...

Environment
40-metre dam breaks in Sathkira; Difficult to survive after repeated losses, say residents
Houses in the coastal areas of Bangladesh have submerged once again due to high tides and overflowing rivers, putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
Several districts in the country were severely affected by flash floods in May and June that had left millions destitute.
The tidal water has increased abnormally over the entire coastal region over the last few days due to the effect of the ful...

Natural Disasters
Flood victims lacking basic essentials such as rice, fuel, cooking utensils; forced to live on roads
Three weeks have passed since the catastrophic floods in northeastern Bangladesh. The floods have affected every aspect of people’s lives. Residents of the area are facing extreme distress, this reporter found out.
A visit to the affected districts of Sylhet and Sunamganj showed flood victims living on the side of the Sylhet-Sunamganj Highway or in other people’s homes.
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