Page 24 - Science

BENDING TO

THE WATER’S WILL

In flood-prone Bangladesh, resilience can mean letting water have its way

By Warren Cornwall, on Polder 32 in Bangladesh; Photography by Tanmoy Bhaduri
F one cloudy May alarm. A black 2009. of wife and beginning “During high tide it was all underwater. And dur-
or Jaharul Sardar, a rice farmer in rural Bangla-
structure, with him inside it, into an adjacent pond. His
desh, the perils of living behind a wall hit home
wife pulled him to safety, soaked but alive.
in
afternoon
For Sardar, relief was short-lived. That day marked the
Sardar was
floods.
standing beside his fields when he heard neigh-
Each
of
poured in
fierce
tide
day the
hill
through the breached wall, drowning fields and homes in
seawater
out
bors cry
in
saltwater,
of
left
mud.
and
blanket
a
and
then withdrew
was sweeping toward him. Sardar’s
5-year-old son clambered atop the em-
stands
guard
bankment that
wall
that failed
mud-floored house. Instead
earthen
4-meter-high
joining
The
on Polder 32,
encircles
the
dated
80 square
It
suitcase
from
them, he dashed inside to rescue a of over his Villagers cluster ing low tide it was like [a] desert,” Sardar says. Downloaded from
1960s.
an artif cial island
stuffed with cash and property records. in southwest kilometers of land to create a massive
Within seconds, waves slammed into the Bangladesh with an “polder”—an artificial island surrounded by
house. Sardar was trapped. Water pushed the uncertain future. the vast tidal rivers that extend like thick ten- http://science.sciencemag.org/

on March 1, 2018

980
Published by AAAS

DA_0302NewsFeatures.indd 980 2/28/18 10:59 AM