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Tuesday 13th December

9am meeting with four Climate Champions from the Climate Generation project run by the British Council. During this meeting we were presented with a very worrying situation in Bangladesh. Climate change through global warming is having an accelerating effect on the communities here. Bangladesh has the second lowest coast line in the world, and the country is already experiencing devastating floods throughout different regions and districts.

The Climate Champions are working to educate Bangladeshis about the environment through the motto ‘think locally, act globally’, empowering their population to understand that they have a role to play in lowering carbon emissions. Their techniques of Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle is very similar to those in the UK, but there is a distinct lack of a joined-up approach. If you spoke with the average person on the street about recycling and global warming I’m sure they would agree about their importance, but for people here the immediate priorities of food, water and shelter must come first. Unlike in the UK, all three necessities are very hard to come by in Bangladesh, and people have to work very hard and very long for low wages - wages which are not meeting industrial development and are driving some families further into poverty.

The Climate Champions are working extremely hard to educate future generations, the generation which is going to bear the burden of the effects of western world consumerism. Proggna Paromita Majumder is one of 35 climate champions. She is working with primary schools to educate them about what they can do to reduce, reuse and recycle. She is empowering them to take individual action as well as educate their peers and parents, aiming for a paradigm shift in thought processes to ensure all understand their social responsibility. You have to ask yourself the question, what am I doing to support this? How are my actions in England impacting on this?

Bangladesh is blessed with four rivers running throughout, which in theory should give them access to clean drinking water and copious amounts of fishing stock. However, this has become a big problem as these rivers also run through India. Why is this a problem? Well, India has already built one dam (the name of the dam is Farakka), close to the border in south western Bangladesh. This dam has disrupted the flow of water into this region and started to dry out the land in the entire district, reducing it to dust. The other problem of course is when India opens the dam, waters flood the lands of Bangladesh below, washing away any crops local farmers have been able to grow.

Given these growing concerns, international climate champion Shafiul Azam from the University of Development Alternatives told us how he is researching plants which can withstand extreme flooding as well as contain the nutrition needed to give the people the strength and energy to get on with life. This research is pioneering and has the potential to change people’s lives in the future in the bid to eradicate hunger and poverty. After this meeting we had tea and Samosas with our guests and headed off for Sylhet.
Sylhet Osmani airport is a contrast to Dhaka and you are immediately hit by how rural the area is, relative to the capital city. Working the lands is the daily routine for survival with these crops feeding the family and town communities.

In the evening we did some tourism and went to visit some of the main sites of Sylhet - the Kean Bridge and Shahjalal Shrine, two very important places to the local people. Kean Bridge is over 200 years old and was the first architectural stamp Great Britain made on Bangladesh. The bridge is still as strong and intact today as it was then and shows limited signs of disrepair given constant use, by people, rickshaws and small vehicles. It really is a key infrastructure for people to get over the huge Surma river, the river responsible for Sylhet’s inception. To put this into context, the size of the Surma river you would need to be thinking of the River Thames but on a greater scale.

Shahjalal Shrine is a monumental place for Sylhet and a place of huge importance. It is dedicated to the 14th century Sufi Saint from Yemen, who received a calling from the only Muslim, Borhan Uddin, who was living amongst Hindus. He sent a message to the Saint explaining that he was experiencing hardship, constant attack and danger on a daily basis for being a Muslim. He explained that people needed to hear the word of Islam and the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH). He arrived with 360 Muslim brothers by sea, riding on Catfish, and set out to spread the word of Islam. What is also significant is that a flock of pigeons also arrived with him and can still be found at the temple today. These pigeons never ever leave.

What is very interesting about this place is that a shrine contradicts Islam teachings. Muslims should only worship Allah as he is the one God. No Muslim Prophets including Mohammed (PBUH) have shrines. So perhaps this has stuck from Hinduism - Hindus of course worship idols and people of significant importance.