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International conference on Climate Change in relation to Water and Environment (I3CWE-2015)

Department of Civil Engineering


DUET - Gazipur, Bangladesh

DISASTER INDUCED RURAL MIGRATION AND ADAPTATION IN URBAN SPACE: A


CASE STUDY OF NATUN BAZAR CHOR BOSTI, KHULNA.
K. N. H.Shezan1*; M. Y.Ali2 and M. M. Morshed3
ABSTRACT: This research investigates how rural people adapt to the urban space in natun bazar
chor bosti. River erosion and water logging in the southern regions of Bangladesh are outcomes of
climate change. Lives and livelihoods have been devastated and people are uprooted from their
homesteads. The usual destinations of these migrants are bostees in big cities. Khulna, as a regional
hub, is one of the biggest recipients of these migrants. Natun bazar chor slum is one of the biggest
bostees in Khulna. About 10 thousand people live in this slum. Among them 2,200 are listed voter.
How is the legality of bosti defined? How do they secure space and livelihoods in cities? How do
they improve their living condition? How do they use their voting power to their advantage?
These are some of the issues addressed in this paper. From a comprehensive field survey and
satellite image analysis, this paper explores the politics of urban space and their evolution over time.
We found that early migrants in the study area became the eminent domain of exercising power to
their advantage but not the new ones. Subsequently, this paper addresses some other urban
stakeholders, e.g., the government organizations, NGOs and bosti organizations. Juxtaposition of
these organizations and entities create a complex mechanism of space management that is hardly
convention.
Keywords: Bosti, Climate change, Migration, Urban space, Politics.

1. Introduction
All over the world due to global warming and manmade disasters, climate patterns are mutating
without any previous notice, which without any doubt, have become one of the concerning
menace for the forthcoming world in near future. Within this existed earth, a beautiful country
named Bangladesh situated in the south Asia is not apart from this constant jeopardy of this
climate change. Because of having an unique geographic position, in context of climate change
Huq and Ayers (2008) in their paper identified Bangladesh as one of the most vulnerable
countries in the world (Martin, Kang, Billah, Siddiqui, Black and Kniveton, 2013). Bangladesh is
going through many natural disasters generated from the consequences of climate changes. From
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (2008), it is perceived that the frequent
disasters are floods, tropical cyclones, storm surges and droughts, which are predicted to be
astringent within the upcoming time frame. According to the paper entitled Climate
Displacement in Bangladesh by displacement solution (May, 2012) across the country when the
socio-economic environment is concatenated with the frequently occurring acrid natural disasters
often leads to loss of life, lands and homes as well as demolition of economic assets, which
impacts negatively on the lives and livelihoods of the affected people. These devastating disasters
are taking away all the assets and shelters even the take down prolonged to the very last assets of
the affected people. Day by day throughout the country this number is increasing as the disaster is
visiting frequently throughout the season after season. As they lose everything even the jobs and
especially the farmers lose their land and crops their survival fall into challenging whirlpool.
Kazi Nazmul Haque Shezan, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, kazi_shezan@yahoo.com
2
Md.Yusuf Ali, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, yusuf.1017054@gmail.com
3
Dr. Md. M. Morshed, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, manjurmorshedkhan@gmail.com
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To survive this incident, a huge number of these affected people sail their life boat towards a
place where they have a chance to manage livelihood and the big cities are the hope for this.
Through the recorded history it is observed that many social, economic, political as well as
disaster related reasons pushing affected people to displace themselves through migration, which
leading to the concept that migration and displacement is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh,
where the more recent circumstances are suggesting that it is going to undergo through a massive
external and internal migration and for which Bangladesh is inadequately prepared
(Shamsuddoha, Khan, Raihan and Hossain, 2012). In the paper entitled Bangladesh Climate
Change Strategy and Action Plan (2009) it is revealed that in the near future almost 20 million
people are carrying the threat of migration, which will add a huge pressure generating from the
environment refugees settlements to the overpopulated Bangladesh. Among the disaster prone
southern areas of Bangladesh, Khulna is one of them. Like other parts of the southern region
Khulna also suffers from the effect of the climate change but it is not so severe like other parts of
the southern areas. So people from disaster induced area migrates to Khulna to survive and for
discovering better livelihood. But Khulna has not enough ability to contain these huge number of
people through supplying employment opportunities and living places. This is the reason why a
very small number of the migrants displaced to Khulna rather than other parts of the country
specially Dhaka region. In the capital city of Bangladesh people have much more opportunity of
employment and livelihood than other parts of the country. In the report of IOM (2010) it is
observed that about 5 lakh people migrated towards Dhaka from the rural and coastal parts of
Bangladesh and In Dhakas slum around 70 % migrants are the result of any environmental
shocks (Rahman, Chattapadhya, 2013).
Slums of Khulna is the main recipients for all the climate induced people migrated from southern
area of the country. Among these slums Natun bazar chor slum is one of the biggest bostees in
Khulna being an inhabitant for ten thousand dwellers. About 7 percent people in this slum are
climate induced migrants. The main objectives of this paper is to understand the contemporary
situation of climate change and migration in Bangladesh through investigating how is the legality
of Natun Bazar Chor bosti defined? How the climate do induced migrants and others secure space
and livelihoods in cities? How do they improve their living condition? Who are involved with
this adaptation procedures? How do they use their voting power to their advantage? Is this
migration a react to climate change or a coping mechanism for the climate induced migrants for
survival?
2. Methodology and Study area
To derive the desired analysis and results, a survey of 170 people in Natun Bazar Chor bosti was
conducted. For the survey sample size was chosen on the basic of blocks and tenure types so that
the characteristics of any blocks or any tenure types do not remain behind the scene. Sample is
chosen in such manner that the minority group is not excluded from the survey. All types of
houses was under the consideration of the sample survey. In fine 170 sample survey was
conducted where sample is chosen randomly block wise. Secondary data was collected through
different secondary sources. Literature review and other analysis in context of Bangladesh was
derived through collecting data from different secondary documents like papers, journals, thesis
etc. For changes of settlement of the slum satellite image of Google earth was used and analysis
was conducted through ArcMap10.1. The paper is concerned about the Natun Bazar Chor Bosti
near Rupsha Ghat and Natun Bazar, Khulna. The figure 1 shows the position of the slum in
context of Khulna and Bangladesh representing the migration pattern in Bangladesh.

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Figure 1: Position of the Natun Bazar Chor Slum, Khulna


3. Literature Review
3.1. Climate change
The definition of climate change by NOAA National Weather Service (2007) is Climate change
is a long-term shift in the statistics of the weather (including its averages). For example, it could
show up as a change in climate normal (expected average values for temperature and
precipitation) for a given place and time of year, from one decade to the next
3.2. Adaptation
Smit et al. (2000) described the definition of Adaptation by Burton (1992) as Adaptation to climate is the
process through which people reduce the adverse effects of climate on their health and well-being, and take
advantage of the opportunities that their climatic environment provides. Adaptation involves adjustments to
enhance the viability of social and economic activities and to reduce their vulnerability to climate,
including its current variability and extreme events as well as longer-term climate change (Santiago
Olmos, 2001)

3.3 Migrants
Shamsuddoha, Khan, Raihan and Hossain (2012) in their paper define migration with pulchritude
and the definition of theirs is Migrants refer to individuals who have changed their place of
residence either by crossing an international border (international migration) or by moving within
their country of origin to another region, district or municipality (internal migration). People are
normally considered 'migrants' if they remain outside their original place of residence for a period
of at least three months.

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3.4 Displacement
Displacement is a type of migration where people are forced to move from one place to another.
When people migrates within their country from one place to another is called internal migration.
4. Climate Change and Related Migration Situation and Pattern in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a low lying country and situated by the bank of the behemoth Bay of Bengal. For
any reason if the sea level raises another 1 meter from the current level, then 14.8 million people
will lose their lands and the estimated area is 29846 sq.km, which will force about 40 million
people to migrate and the migration pattern will be either on the basic on long run or on the
permanent basis (The Daily Star, 2011). Ibid. and National Adaptation Plan of Action (2005)
described that within the last twenty five years Bangladesh has tolerated six acute flood and
among them respectively the flood of 1988 and 1998 all alone caused 2000-6500 and 1100 deaths
which forced almost 45 and 30 million people to displace (Mohd. Atiqueuzzaman Khan, Md.
Shamsuddoha, Abdullah Al Helal & Asif Hassan, 2013). From Tavares (2010) it is observed that
per year external migrants are 600000. From the year 1975 to 2009 it is noticed that the
urbanization rate is 3.03% being the highest throughout the world, which is resulted from internal
migrations. This phenomenon can be explained by the shifting characteristics of agriculture to
industrial production shifts. Because of migration living conditions variation is an added
problem. In the report of IOM it is estimated that huge proportion of slum residents in the urban
areas had migrated from other districts. Migrants in slum usually vary from region to region. In
Dhaka it is 53% where in Khulna it is observed 70 %. Every year almost 5 lakh people migrates
towards Dhaka due to many environmental shocks (Richard Marshall and Shibaab Rahman,
2013).
5. Climate change induced migration and adaption in Natun Bazar Chor Slum
Natun bazar chor slum near Rupsha Ghat and Natun bazar is one of the biggest bostees in
Khulna. About 10 thousand people live in this slum. Among them 2,200 are listed voter. Through
secondary document and a sample survey of 170 we found that early migrants in the study area
became the eminent domain of exercising power to their advantage but not the new ones. Age of
the slum is more than 40 years old and migrants came from southern area of this country. It is
observed that among the migrants 5 percent people were displaced due to climate change related
disasters like Sidr, Ayla, and Flood etc. It is identified from the analysis of the data that the people
migrated here due to climate change are newer comparing to the other families of the slum. The
number of the new migrants in the slum is very low. Through the survey it is identified that the
growth of the slum is very low now days. About 80 percent people in this area are living for more
than 30 years. Along the past decade the spatial growth of the slum is very low which can be
evident from the satellite image analysis of the slum showed in the figure 2.

Figure 2: Changes of builtup area of Natun Bazar Slum area from 2001 to 2014

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In the figure 3 it is observed that the increasing of the settlement pattern has deemed within the
last 7 years. which is the evidence that recently the settlement is not growing much as before. So
we can conclude that the new comer are lesser in number and it is found through the study that
the migrants are new comer and they havent enough dominance as the older residents have.

Percentage of Builtup Area


75

72.48
69.92

70

Percentage

65
60.97
60
55
2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

Year

Figure 3: Percentage of builtup area from 2001 to 2014 for change detection
The land of the slum area is divided into two parts and they are land of Government and Cristian
missionary. But the living condition and the social or either the economic condition is not varied
between these two lands settlements. Owner of the houses either purchased the house or built the
house with their own money and they have no legal right on the land. They are bound to pay
200tk tax per year for house. The houses are either one or second storied. Almost all houses are
tin shaded and 1st floor of two storied houses are made of wood and bamboo.
Now in context of climate induced migrants, some of them had lost their whole property, some
had lost house and accessories and these types of people has permanently shifted to the slum and
many of migrants lost their source of livelihood which forced them to displaced here.Through the
survey migration due to slow onset disasters - such as increasing soil and water salinity in coastal
areas due to sea-level rise was found zero. All of the migrants are the result of sudden onset
disasters - such as cyclones, tidal water incursion and river erosion in low-lying coastal districts.
About 60 percent of the climate induced migrants here are severely affected by Cyclone Sidr in
November 2007and Cyclone Aila in 2009. Among these 60 percent almost every family has lost
their whole property and some of them are planning to return after managing enough money for
resettlement. About 20 percent migrants have migrated due to the river erosion. Their houses,
Farm lands were vanished by the consequences of river erosion.
Some of climate induced migrants have relatives in the slum and managed to obtain a living place
for first time and then they either bought or built the house through loan. Others had to live here
as paying guest. After some year almost every family of these migrants managed their own space
as the value of the sold houses were cheap. People who sold the houses has shifted from this slum
for better life to other residential area like Lobonchora near Rupsha Bridge. Rural climate
induced migrants are coping with the new environment and for helping them to adapt the life here
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different Government and Non-Government organizations are working and helping them through
many means but no special treatment for the climate induced migrants. When the migrants first
arrived here the male family members engaged themselves in day labor works and the female
contributed to the family income through working on shrimp head separation industry and
working on houses after achieving enough loyalty among the slum dwellers. But the slum
environment and living condition was a great challenge for them at first as they were from crystal
clear natural environment contained places but later they become used to it. There was also a very
big issues for these migrants is space. Average family member of the migrants are 5-6 and they
had only one room to live. Like other slum dwellers they also managed some money and
expanded their houses vertically by the help of very cheap materials like 2 nd hand bamboo, wood
etc. which increased their living space up to 70 percent. This idea is found in the rural areas and
known as Pataton.
To cope with this new environment and social life and to adapt these, only their own effort is not
enough. This is the time where NGO and Government organization are needed to be mentioned.
Formal mayor of Khulna City Corporation helped the whole slum people to manage their life
here and also to survive after 3 huge fire incidents which was possible for the voting power of the
slum dwellers. Recently there was a clash between the land owner purchased lands from Cristian
missionary with the slum dwellers. The owner wanted to evict them but by the help of the formal
mayor though initiatives taken by KCC that effort went to vain. To sustain in this area
government is helping them indirectly and in return they are paying tax. Without the support of
the government it would be a very tough job for the slum people to sustain. Different NGO
named ASHA, BRACK, and NOBOLOK etc. helped them through providing money and
different accessories related to household chores, but this helps are much more corruption
induced and the main help from them comes in terms of giving loan.
So the climate induced migrants are coping with this life and adopting this life for their own need
and to survive. Through the study, easily it can be realized that the migration process of these
migrants are not a reaction to the climate change rather than it is adaptation and coping
mechanism to survive.
6. Conclusion
Migration is ongoing and it will continue. Migration is taking place from the begenning of the
man kind for many reasons where survival is one of the major casue. Because of many natural
and man made incidents climate is changing without any warning. All over the world when this is
a burning issue Bangladesh is undergoing through many natural dissasters resulted from the
climate changes.Bangladesh is a very disaster-prone country. To survive, people of the disaster
affected area are migrating toward cities. Climate induced migrants are inflexed in capital city
Dhaka rather than other cites of Bangladesh as Dhaka can offer much employment opportunity
than other cities. Comparing to our study side it is evident that Small cities like Khulna have very
little climate induced migrants comparing Dhaka city. In Natun bazar chor slum the migrants due
to climate change are 5 percent where average percentage of climate induced migrant in Dhaka
slum are near about twenty three percent where Dhaka has 70 percent migrants in the slum who
are forced by some kind of environmental shocks (IOM, 2010). So it is evident from this study
that people from disaster induced places are gathering in big cities rather than small ones. People
are coping with the new environment and adapting through many difficulties by the indirect help
from NGO or Government Organizations. In fine through the discussion paper can be conclude
with the concept that the People are migrating and will migrate in future to the bigger cities
where they can manage shelter and livelihood as the climate of the world is shifting. Migration
process of these climate induced people is never a react to the climate change rather than a coping
mechanism to sustain and survive.

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7. Acknowledgement
First of all we thanks to Allah for granting us to complete this paper without facing any major
problems and constraints. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of all there members of
the group. We are also thankful to those dwellers of the Slum of Natun bazar chor, Khulna for
helping us through giving information and making the sample survey easier for us.
8. References
Atiqueuzzaman Khan, Mohd., Md. Shamsuddoha, Abdullah Al Helal and Asif Hassan, Climate
Change Mitigation Approaches in Bangladesh, Journal of Sustainable Development; Vol.
6, No. 7; ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071, Published by Canadian Center of Science
and Education, 2013.
Displacement Solutions, Climate Displacement in Bangladesh the Need for Urgent Housing,
Land and Property (HLP) Rights Solutions, May 2012.
IOM and other agencies, Joint Position Paper on Cyclone Aila Affected Areas (2010).
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh,
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 2008.
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh,
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 2009.
Martin, Kang, Billah, Siddiqui, Black and Kniveton, Policy analysis: Climate change and
migration Bangladesh, Working paper 4, an output of research on climate change related
migration in Bangladesh, conducted by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit
(RMMRU), University of Dhaka, and Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR),
University of Sussex, with support from Climate & Development Knowledge Network
(CDKN), May 2012.
Marshall, Richard, Shibaab Rahman, Internal Migration in Bangladesh: Character, Drivers and
Policy Issues, A paper by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Bangladesh,
2013.
NOAA National Weather Service, Climate Change, October 2007.
Olmos, Santiago, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change: Concepts, Issues, Assessment
Methods, the Climate Change Knowledge Network, July 2001.
Rahman, Rashed, Somashree Chattapadhya, Climate Change Induced Vulnerability: Migration
towards Cities, IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology
(IOSR-JESTFT) e-ISSN: 2319-2402, p- ISSN: 2319-2399. Volume 4, Issue 5 (May. - Jun.
2013), PP 77-82, www.Iosrjournals.Org
Shamsuddoha, Md, SM Munjurul Hannan Khan, Sajid Raihan and Tanjir Hossain, Displacement
and migration from climate Hot-Spots in Bangladesh Causes and Consequences, August 2012.
The Daily Star, Climate change induced displacement: Migration as an adaptation strategy,
November 15th, 2011.

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