Published : 10 Nov 2026, 01:03 AM
Updated : 10 Nov 2026, 01:03 AM
The river took her home. A broken embankment lets the tide take what little remains. Displaced families along the coast sleep beside launch terminals or on pavements, fearing the water’s return.
For Peya Begum, over 60, safety has become a life without an address. Erosion swallowed her home in Patahat of Barishal’s Mehendiganj in the coastal south of Bangladesh.
She settled near the river port with her four daughters and grandchildren, but lost that refuge too. They now survive on vegetables collected from the wholesale market and her daughters’ earnings.
“The river swallowed our house. Where could I go? So I came and started staying at the launch terminal. Now they will not let us stay there either. We are staying at the new launch terminal,” she told bdnews24.com.
Thousands share Peya’s plight along Bangladesh’s coast. IOM estimates disasters and climate change have displaced about five million people internally.
Their plight will be raised at COP31 in Turkiye’s Antalya. But will climate finance reach people who have lost their homes, or repair the embankments that leave them exposed?
Led by Australia, the summit offers Bangladesh a chance to make their plight heard. Whether it will register beyond the negotiating rooms remains uncertain.
Shirin and Motaleb have lived near the Barishal launch terminal for two years with their three children. Motaleb lost his ancestral home in Patuakhali’s Kalaiya and now owns neither land nor a house. The family lives in a cramped room, far from relatives.
The Tide that Drives Them Out
Climate change is intensifying disasters worldwide. Rising seas, cyclones, storm surges, floods and river erosion are eating away at coastal settlements.
In southern and southwestern Bangladesh, spreading salinity is compounding the damage, threatening homes and livelihoods alike.
Rivers swallow houses and farmland; storms and surges destroy homesteads, forcing families like Peya Begum’s to seek refuge elsewhere.
Across coastal districts including Barishal, Barguna, Patuakhali, Satkhira, and Bagerhat, disasters and climate change are driving more people from their homes. Many lose not only their land but also the means to earn a living.
Unable to rebuild, they drift into urban slums, launch terminals, and pavements. The displacement strips families of shelter and livelihood, leaving the next generation’s future increasingly uncertain.
Jagadish Chandra Mistry, of Patakata in Barguna Sadar, has lived there since before independence. At 70, he remembers Sidr, when winds reached 260km an hour and waves rose 10 to 12 feet above normal tides.
The surge breached embankments along the Payra, Bishkhali and Baleshwar rivers, sweeping away 68,379 homes. Floodwaters ruined crops on nearly 15,000 hectares and killed 1,435 people in the district.
High tides still inundate the area almost monthly, carrying away belongings. Residents say long stretches of embankment remain damaged and want permanent barriers.
For 48-year-old Kesto Chandra Howlader, each day brings fear that a tide will wash away everything, including his cooking pots. Like others who survived Sidr, Aila and Mahasen, he wants a permanent embankment.
Barishal relief officer Ranjit Kumar Sarker said 20 percent of residents in four city slum areas had fled river erosion. Disaster-hit families had received homes, but many genuine beneficiaries were excluded.
The government is considering further measures, though no decision has been made.
Promises on the COP Stage, Money on the Coast?
Some 5,800km separates Bangladesh from Antalya. Will their anguish reach the negotiating table?
Climate analyst Malik Fida A Khan said the government tries to present the scale of the damage collectively.
“Still, the rule is that you have to tell the global forum that this is the damage happening in our coastal areas today. Many hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced. The population is declining in our coastal areas of Satkhira, Barishal, Barguna, Patuakhali and Bagerhat.”
Disasters and salinity push people away; the search for jobs draws them towards cities.
“Because of disasters and salinity in the country’s coastal areas, people are being displaced towards cities by the ‘push factor’, while the search for employment acts as the ‘pull factor’.”
Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, head of the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies, said COP has two tracks: formal negotiations requiring consensus, and the presidency’s voluntary Action Agenda, which imposes no new obligations.
“Bangladesh’s main questions belong to the first track. When will the promised money arrive, in what form, and will it reach the person who has lost a home on the coast?
“The ‘COP of implementation’ will not be judged by how many new announcements are made. It will be judged by whether a coastal family gets a safe home and whether the promised money returns as loan instalments. Bangladesh is not asking for charity. It is asking for what is due to it.”
Diplomacy without Delivery
Bangladesh emits little carbon but needs $230 billion by 2050 to address climate change, said Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman, dean of Stamford University Bangladesh’s science faculty.
A request for $137 billion in mitigation funding went unmet. Loss and damage is now central to COP, he said.
“The Bangladesh government is almost at the final stage of preparing a framework for loss and damage. Adaptation is preparation to deal with future losses, while loss and damage is a demand for compensation for losses that have already happened.”
Malik Fida A Khan said developed countries had pledged $100 billion a year for adaptation, but consensus among 192 countries was difficult and there was no legal obligation to release the funds.
“Currently, COP conferences have largely turned into ‘climate diplomacy’. Since the countries hosting COP, such as Azerbaijan, Turkiye and Australia, are themselves major carbon and oil emitters, questions remain over whether these conferences can deliver the benefits we seek.”
After developed countries questioned Bangladesh’s documentation of losses and adaptation needs, the government prepared a National Adaptation Plan following IPCC and UNFCCC standards.
The water resources expert says developed countries are delaying the Loss and Damage Fund, citing complex assessment requirements, although its board is based in the Philippines.
What Bangladesh Will Seek
Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo says climate change costs Bangladesh $15.2 billion a year. Dhaka will seek increased allocations and more funding for vulnerable countries.
State Minister Shama Obaed Islam called for stronger coordination to improve Bangladesh’s bargaining position.
“When we sit at the global negotiating table and talk to world leaders and stakeholders, the government, private sector, experts and other stakeholders in Bangladesh need to have a unified position.”
Majumder said Bangladesh needed fundable projects and stronger development capacity, from ministries to city corporations. Coordination with the Least Developed Countries group and Climate Vulnerable Forum could strengthen its demands.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is scheduled to present Bangladesh’s position to world leaders on Nov 11 and 12.
Environment committee Chairman Mohammad GK Gaus said he hoped the summit would yield results.
“The current government is taking several new initiatives for those affected by climate change. We will implement them.”
