Sea Level Rise. A Threat to the Coast of Bangladesh

Abstract

Sea level rise (SLR) will directly affect vast coastal areas and flood plains of Bangladesh. A rise in sea level of nearly 10 cm, 25 cm resp. 1 m is expected by 2020, 2050 resp. 2100, inundating 2%, 4% and 17.5% of the country's total land mass respectively. Twenty million people, engaged in salt/shrimp production, fishery/agriculture, and other businesses will be directly affected. As a result of a sea level rise of 1 m, 29,846 sq km of the coastal area will be inundated; 14.8 million people will be landless, and tens of thousands of people will be environmental refugees. Annual rice production in Bangladesh will be drastically reduced. Soil and water salinity of the coastal zone will be increased. The Sundarbans, the mangrove-estuary of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta, will be totally destroyed. Against this backdrop, a prime need of the country is to facilitate a national climate-resilient development process in addition to the regional and international efforts. This paper focuses on one of the major implications of climate change, the sea level rise. It portrays the impacts of sea level rise on the people of the coastal areas of Bangladesh and potential mitigation and adaptation strategies.