Cyclone Sidr and Its Aftermath: Everyday Life, Power and Marginality

This PhD research is about power struggle and marginality in peoples’ everyday life in the aftermath of the cyclone Sidr. This research explores how everyday vulnerabilities of a coastal community, which is ignored in the powerful knowledge framing, limit peoples’ ability to withstand a cyclone. It reiterates the idea that the conditionality, which makes an individual, a group or a community susceptible to a natural event, is a legacy of our engagement with the environment and, thus, scrutinise our knowledge on that particular event. From a theoretical interest in environment-society studies, my work strives to understand affected communities’ quotidian experiences of their livelihoods, after being affected by Cyclone Sidr, through rebuilding, relief support, access to natural resources in land, water and forest, alternative income opportunities, patron-client networks, and local power dynamics. The whole research is based on an ethnographic account in three proximate villages, Gabtola, Mazer Char and Sonatola Model Village, adjacent to the Sundarbans. This research examines the following research questions – i) How are communities’ everyday livelihoods, mediated through their broader societal, political and economic networks, informing their ability to cope with a cyclone event, and thus connected with cyclone knowledge?; ii) How are the complex interface of environmental change, livelihood options and power dynamics reciprocally linked with cyclone rhetoric?; and iii) Whose views are reflected in the development of cyclone knowledge and practice in Bangladesh? Being a native Bengali speaker, knowing local dialects, having previous work experience of academic research on disadvantaged and rural communities, power dynamics and development, I was in an advantageous position to carry out this highly sensitive work. This research contributes to the idea of vulnerability and resilience by portraying the importance of considering local power dynamics in shaping environment-society relationship. In addition, this research also enlightens on local development and economic aspects through unpacking issues in regard to relief and rehabilitation, fishing and forest use. These theoretical contributions, reciprocally, back up methodological underpinnings of it. More importantly, this research explores the interface of cyclone, power and livelihoods and echoes voices of marginal people with a view to them having their space in policies

Rural local government and state politics in Bangladesh

Decentralization has become fashionable in governmental development of the third world. Theoretically, it is the shift of sovereign responsibilities that includes the planning, financing and management of certain public functions to field units of government agencies, subordinate units or levels of government, semi-autonomous public authorities or corporations, or area-wide regional or functional authorities. Unfortunately, Bangladesh became dysfunctional due to rampant political corruption and successive political crises since its independence. Every regime has formed a local government commission under different names, without giving much real effort to decentralising their powers to the local level. Accordingly, every regime has accused their predecessors of uncontrolled distortion. The post-liberation experience of the local government (LG) of Bangladesh suggests that the national government uses the local government bodies to strengthen its own power base in the name of decentralization. The present research asks whether the policy and the formation of different structures can achieve decentralisation. It engages in a number of theoretical, methodological and empirical debates on rural local government institutions. The history of LG in Bangladesh can be characterised as a British-invented and Pakistani-installed centrally controlled local hierarchical system. Thus, because of extreme political corruption and violence in every sphere of Bangladesh, the radical potential of civil society organisations is being appropriated and they are being used to fill gaps in service delivery, allowing the state to withdraw, which is justified by 'roll-back' neoliberalism. However, this thesis argues that the restoration of law and order and assurance of transparency are prerequisites of efficient local government. Again, endorsing the traditional informal institutions can reduce the pressure on government indifferent affairs like dispute resolution, social awareness, health and safety and so on. In addition, delegating responsibility for service provision to other quarters like NGOs and civil society can help to address the development concerns of the people, as well as capacity-building in local level institutions

Enabling access to the Green Climate Fund: Sharing country lessons from South Asia

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a financing mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Established in 2011, the GCF aims to make a significant and ambitious contribution towards internationally agreed goals to combat climate change. The flow of international climate finance to developing countries, particularly via the GCF, is projected to increase significantly as industrialised countries meet their commitments under the UNFCCC. This paper provides insights and lessons from South Asia on accessing GCF finance in terms of establishing the necessary institutional mechanisms and capabilities for developing funding proposals and managing the disbursement of funds. It is based on a series of interviews and the proceedings of a 2018 workshop with GCF-related government officials in the region, and illustrated with examples from the Action on Climate Today (ACT) programme. The paper presents a ‘demand-side’ country perspective on the challenges faced and some of the strategies countries have employed to overcome them. It synthesises this learning into a framework for strengthening access to the GCF, looking at systemic approaches and strategies that governments, funders and practitioners can use

Detecting climate adaptation with mobile network data in Bangladesh: anomalies in communication, mobility and consumption patterns during cyclone Mahasen

Large-scale data from digital infrastructure, like mobile phone networks, provides rich information on the behavior of millions of people in areas affected by climate stress. Using anonymized data on mobility and calling behavior from 5.1 million Grameenphone users in Barisal Division and Chittagong District, Bangladesh, we investigate the effect of Cyclone Mahasen, which struck Barisal and Chittagong in May 2013. We characterize spatiotemporal patterns and anomalies in calling frequency, mobile recharges, and population movements before, during and after the cyclone. While it was originally anticipated that the analysis might detect mass evacuations and displacement from coastal areas in the weeks following the storm, no evidence was found to suggest any permanent changes in population distributions. We detect anomalous patterns of mobility both around the time of early warning messages and the storm’s landfall, showing where and when mobility occurred as well as its characteristics. We find that anomalous patterns of mobility and calling frequency correlate with rainfall intensity (r = .75, p < 0.05) and use calling frequency to construct a spatiotemporal distribution of cyclone impact as the storm moves across the affected region. Likewise, from mobile recharge purchases we show the spatiotemporal patterns in people’s preparation for the storm in vulnerable areas. In addition to demonstrating how anomaly detection can be useful for modeling human adaptation to climate extremes, we also identify several promising avenues for future improvement of disaster planning and response activities

Post-disaster housing reconstruction: the impact of resourcing in post-cyclone Sidr and Aila in Bangladesh

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version

When the disaster strikes: gendered (im)mobility in Bangladesh

Gender influences people’s behaviour in various ways. This study investigates gendered (im)mobility during cyclone strikes in Bangladesh. During such strikes people have described being unable to move away from environmentally high-risk locations and situations. The Q-based Discourse Analysis used by this study shows how and why gender-roles (im)mobilised people in three coastal locations during the cyclones. People (and especially women) explained that failing to evacuate to the cyclone shelters when a disaster strikes was not uncommon. Gender, or feminine and masculine social roles, played a significant role in these evacuation decisions while facilitating or constraining their mobility. The gendered subjectivities presented different accepted social behaviours and spaces for women and men. In this way, immobility (social, psychological, and geographical) was strongly gendered. Masculine roles were expected to be brave and protective, while female ‘mobility’ could be risky. Women’s mobility therefore ended up being constrained to the home. In other words, when the disaster strikes, everyone did not have the same ability to move. These empirical insights are important to inform climate policy in a way that it better supports vulnerable populations worldwide as they confront global environmental changes today and in the future

A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh

The Ganges–Brahmaputra delta enables Bangladesh to sustain a dense population, but it also exposes people to natural hazards. This article presents findings from the Gibika project, which researches livelihood resilience in seven study sites across Bangladesh. This study aims to understand how people in the study sites build resilience against environmental stresses, such as cyclones, floods, riverbank erosion, and drought, and in what ways their strategies sometimes fail. The article applies a new methodology for studying people’s decision making in risk-prone environments: the personal Livelihood History interviews (N = 28). The findings show how environmental stress, shocks, and disturbances affect people’s livelihood resilience and why adaptation measures can be unsuccessful. Floods, riverbank erosion, and droughts cause damage to agricultural lands, crops, houses, and properties. People manage to adapt by modifying their agricultural practices, switching to alternative livelihoods, or using migration as an adaptive strategy. In the coastal study sites, cyclones are a severe hazard. The study reveals that when a cyclone approaches, people sometimes choose not to evacuate: they put their lives at risk to protect their livelihoods and properties. Future policy and adaptation planning must use lessons learned from people currently facing environmental stress and shocks

Dhaka Sitting on a Plastic Bomb: Issues and Concerns around Waste Governance, Water Quality, and Public Health

Plastic, an offer of modernity, has become one of the essential parts of our everyday life. However, it is presenting a massive threat in altered forms, to our health and environment. Plastic does not only pollute the surface environment, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, but toxic elements released from plastics also percolate down the surface and contaminate groundwater, which we often use as ‘safe’ drinking water. This probable future risk is deeply rooted in the entire governance infrastructure of plastic waste which could potentially lead to contamination of groundwater. Thus, a state-sponsored ‘safe drinking water’ initiative could contrarily produce a ‘risk society’. A recent study finds 81% of tap water samples collected worldwide contained plastic pollutants, which means that annually we may be ingesting between 3000 and 4000 microparticles of plastic from tap water. Based on review, ethnographic observations and interviews, and lived experience in a plastic-wrapped city (Dhaka), this paper sheds light on the complex interface of plastic, water, and public health, on the relevance of Beck’s ‘risk society’ to understand this complexity, and on replicating the idea of ‘risk society’ in the case of Bangladesh. Through understanding the plastic–groundwater–waste management nexus, this paper highlights and advocates for a new strategy of plastic governance in modern states