<i>Climate migration and its impact on health</i>
Human migration, one of the key impacts of climate change has already been well documented. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed in its first assessment report in 1990 (IPCC AR1) that 150 million people will migrate due to adverse impact of climate change by the year 2050.
Recent studies showed more terrifying figure of climate change induced forced migrants that one in every 45 people in the world and one in every 7 people in Bangladesh may be displaced by climate change by 2050.
Migration of people to a newer place will adversely impact on their basic needs like food, health, education etc. With appropriate climate change adaptation policy we can lessen their sufferings and protect their basic rights.
Since a large part of Bangladesh is located just above the sea level, any rise in sea level may lead to inundation of settled low-lying areas this forcing people to relocate. In addition, intrusion of salt water may cause problems for agriculture in a much larger area, while possible flooding and drought may also have severe consequences for food production.
The consequence will ultimately be a massive relocation of people not only within the country but also into neighbouring countries causing tensions and potentially violent conflicts.
Most of the migrants who come to Dhaka end up in the slums, contribute to 40 percent of the city's population. Some 70 percent of slum dwellers in Dhaka moved there after experiencing some kind of environmental hardship. In the past, people would come to the slums, earn some money and returned home in their villages, but as the effects of climate change increase, more people are staying in Dhaka's slums permanently.
The major health threats posed on climate migrants due to poor air quality (indoor and outdoor), inadequate safe water (arsenic contaminated and saline water), improper sanitation, untreated solid waste, agro-chemical and industrial effluents and overuse of renewable resources such as forests and fisheries.
The World Bank (2006) suggests that these environmental factors account for as much as 22 percent of the national burden of diseases in Bangladesh. The respiratory infections and disease caused by poor air quality, both indoor and urban, may contribute up to 10 percent of the total burden of disease. Diarrhoeal disease caused by inadequate access to safe water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene may contribute up to 10 percent of the total burden of disease. Poor sanitation and industrial waste are becoming a threat to the environment.
Malnutrition is another major health consequences suffered by the migrants. Due to dislocation they lose their job which drags them into serious food insecurity that ultimately leads to malnutrition. After natural disaster such as flood, the condition triggers.
Policies on adaptation and mitigation need to focus on reducing people's vulnerability to climate change, supporting them by moving away from marginal areas and arranging alternative livelihoods to make them more resilient.
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The writers are Research Associates of James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University.
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