内容摘要：Natural Resources Conservation Service, Blythe, Calif. (980 square feet)

Natural Resources Conservation Service, Blythe, Calif. (980 square feet)

“When it comes to adaptation, Mongla is a success story. Changes are coming there as an example of how climate refugees could transform their life through new opportunities, through a new approach of adaptation,” said Huq, whose institute conducts environmental research.“Mongla has offered new opportunities to them. With its seaport and an export processing zone and climate-resilient infrastructure, Mongla town has become a different story,” Huq said.

“Now, we expect to replicate the Mongla model to at least two dozen other coastal towns across Bangladesh as safe home for climate refugees,” he said. “Currently, we are talking to mayors and officials of almost half a dozen municipalities about the success in Mongla.”Huq said more than a dozen satellite towns, all adjacent to economic hubs such as sea and river ports, have already been identified as potential migrant-friendly locations.“These are all secondary towns with populations of up to half a million, which can shelter up to another half a million climate migrants each,” said Huq. “Thus we can offer alternatives to at least 10 million climate migrants over next one decade.”

Climate scientists say low-lying Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and millions are at the risk of being displaced — becoming climate refugees because of sea level rise, river erosion, cyclonic storms and intrusion of saline water. The World Bank in a new report said last year that Bangladesh will have more than 19 million internal climate refugees by 2050, almost half the projected number for the entire South Asia region.Houses and trees affected during the 2020 Cyclone Amphan sit on the water’s edge at Chila Bazar in Mongla, Bangladesh, March 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Houses and trees affected during the 2020 Cyclone Amphan sit on the water’s edge at Chila Bazar in Mongla, Bangladesh, March 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Huq said by an approach of transformative adaptation in about two dozen small coastal towns including Mongla, at least 10 million climate refugees could be resettled, rather than forcing them to move to slums in big cities like Dhaka, the nation’s capital.Sabrina Fernandes holds her baby at her house, in the Perpetuo Socorro neighborhood, in the city of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

“We had to travel upriver by boat for two hours to fetch sweet water. And sometimes it tasted salty even going that far.” Elinho told The Associated Press in his home in Macapa city, where he has lived since August with his wife, Sabrina Fernandes, 25, and their three sons.The river and the sea push back and forth against each other with different strengths according to the season. During a full moon, the sea invades the river with such strength that, in some places, it turns into a single giant wave of up to 4 meters (13 feet), a phenomenon known as pororoca. The advance of seawater typically occurs in Bailique during the dry season when the Amazon River’s flow diminishes.

Last year, the seawater pushed upriver for longer, around five months. The water tasted saltier and for the first time in several decades, it reached the whole archipelago, eight islands, where about 14,000 people live spread across 58 villages.“I had never seen it like this before. Not even my parents did it,” said Elinho, who, living now in Macapa, is away from the islands for the first time in his life.