From the climate change frontline
The Bangladesh government is about to declare a “state of water emergency” in the drought prone Barind tract in the northwest of the country, where over-extraction of groundwater for rice farming and dwindling rainfall caused by climate change have combined to create a crisis.
Erroneous environmental and economic development measures in Halda valley have put the river and its rich biodiversity at stake.
The measures include faulty site selection to protect river banks, rubber dams to increase crop production and industrial effluent discharge.
Such rituals and festivities were an integral part of the lives of the agro-based community in the delta