Every year the embankment protecting the farmland surrounding the village of Pashurbunia in southern Bangladesh, collapses due to flooding and rising sea levels. 

Hawoa Begum, 35, explains how the community campaigns for the local authority, Lalua Union, to rebuild the embankment so that their crops and livestock can survive. 

“Due to high tide and flooding the embankment is collapsing. The water is getting into the crops and the crops can’t grow due to high salinity,” she says. “The salt water is damaging the ponds, the rivers and the crops. Our fishermen can’t make any profit because fish can’t survive in salt water.” 

She is a women’s leader in an ActionAid-funded local research group called Gonogobeshona Dol, which also raises money from community members to help pay for repairs when the embankment is damaged.

“Due to the high number of cyclones and embankment collapse, there are no jobs and that means that many people from our villages are moving to Dhaka,” she says. 

Hawoa is also a member of ActionAid’s General Assembly and has travelled the world to bring attention to the human impacts of climate change in Bangladesh, where increasingly extreme weather events, including cyclones, river erosion and soil salinity are destroying lives and livelihoods. 

“My only request to world leaders is that we want a strong embankment, so that we can protect our crops. If we had a strong embankment, we will not have unemployment and we will not have problems earning our own living, problems harvesting our crops. 

“We cannot avoid natural disasters, but we can minimise the risks by having a strong embankment system.”

Related Impact Stories

Impact Stories

Determination of Sepali got her A+ in her secondary school certificate examination

Sepali said, “Before the exam, I realized some lack in my preparation and I was struggling to understand some complicated issues of math, physics, and chemistry. ActionAid always helped me and my family to overcome difficult situations and this time also helped me by providing tuition facilities. A teacher taught us two months before the final examination. I have also planned for future and want to be a police officer.”
Read More

Impact Stories

The adversity of mountain could not prevent Unueshayang to pass her secondary school certificate examination

Unueshayang (17) thought her dreams got shattered when she could not sit for the secondary school certificate (SSC) examination in 2021 due to not having the preparation. Lack of guidance is the most common challenge that children living in hill tracts mostly suffer in completing education. Unueshayang’s father tried to give her daughter the best opportunity but could not arrange tuition for her. After knowing this, ActionAid extended mentoring support for Unueshayang and she finally appeared in the SSC exam 2022 where she successfully passed the examination.
Read More

Impact Stories

Moriom Leading in Emergency Response

Most. Moriom is 32-year-old women from Dalbugonj village in Patuakhali, a highly disaster-prone coastal area of Bangladesh. As her husband is a migrant worker at Middle East, living alone with her 2 kids in such an area; Moriom knew she cannot limit herself within home and had to stay strong to protect her family from any form of harm.
Read More

Impact Stories

Sathy bringing Positive Changes through Volunteerism

Mst. Sathy Aktar is an activist from Kushtia and the vice-president of Ideal Youth Union. She was studying at Rajshahi University and lived in Rajshahi for her study.
Read More