Water World: Is a coastal catastrophe approaching, and what should we be doing about it?

According to PBS NOW reporter Maria Hinojosa, 20% of Bangladesh could be under water by 2030

Watch this segment on PBS's NOW to learn more about the challenges that BRAC members in Bangladesh are facing.

Look for the cameo appearances of former BRAC Intern and Blogger, Maher Sattar, who worked on the NOW production team.

When Cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh's low-lying coastal belt and parts of eastern India on May 25, 2009, we had a preview of the disasters that climate change will bring to the country. Sea (saline) water inundated a large part of the region and will take an estimated six to seven months to recede completely.

BRAC is using this as an opportunity to help the victims rehabilitate their livelihoods through the adoption of new technologies and to learn how to respond to similar events in the future.

Salt Tolerant Rice: BRAC has distributed 15,000 kg of two types of salt tolerant high yield variety of rice seeds.

Fish Cultivation/Crab Fattening: BRAC determined that a special variety of tilapia cultivation and crab fattening could help to restore the livelihood of the Aila-affected population where the agricultural lands are still inundated. The beneficiaries were given a grant of Tk. 15,000 ($219) each to cultivate fish (e.g. Genetically Modified Farm Tilapia-GIFT) and culture crab in pens (about 1,000 sq ft or 110 sq m) in their submerged rice lands. These farmers cannot grow rice, as their lands are inundated by saline tidal water. It is one of our objectives to explore whether we can utilize the brackish water as a resource and address food security and restore livelihood through this field demonstration / experimentation. Those who do not possess any land for rice cultivation, crab fattening or fish culture, were given an opportunity to make the pens for fish/crab culture to sell to farmers and fishers in their commmunity. This training was given to 110 people .

Developing BRAC’s Emergency Response Capacity In Bangladesh: This month BRAC launched a new initiative to build its capacity in Bangladesh to respond to emergencies effectively, save lives, mitigate losses, empower communities to prepare and be first responders to disasters, and give people the tools to move more quickly into recovery mode.