The Khurushkul Ashrayon Prokolpo was launched to shelter 4,409 climate refugee families, making it one of the largest settlements of its kind in Bangladesh. The whole area is divided into four zones, with zone 1 covering 111 acres, where approximately 600 families have already settled.
Although the project aims to provide climate refugees with improved living conditions, many underlying problems continue to persist beneath its promises.
The cry for water
The residents' primary concern is accessible drinking water. Although tube-wells are installed around each block, most of them are inoperable due to broken pump handles, faulty piston valves, and the intrusion of saline water.
Hence, they are forced to fetch drinking water from a mile away tube-well and rely on pond water for house chores. Women are usually tasked with this responsibility, and the daily strain of carrying heavy containers over long distances and then hauling them up to the second or third floor of their homes is causing them severe back pain and other health issues.
The water crisis at the Khurushkul project area is fundamentally a geographical problem, with its proximity to the sea guaranteeing saltwater intrusion into its water sources. Moreover, according to data from the Cox's Bazar Municipality and the Public Health Engineering Department, Cox’s Bazar’s groundwater table is in a state of severe decline.
The problem extends across several districts of Cox's Bazar, affecting communities from Vaditla and Palakata on its outskirts, to Ukhia and Teknaf in the south, and even to the island of Kutubdia. A report in 2023 stated that the groundwater level is plummeting by 10 to 15 feet every year. This rapid depletion has rendered many tube wells across the town useless.
To illustrate the scale of the problem, the water level at Tekpara, which was between 120 and 150 feet a decade ago, now requires drilling to depths of 300 to 500 feet to reach water. In some areas, like Kalatali, the water level has dropped precipitously by 20 to 30 feet. This regional scarcity is mirrored within the Khurushkul Ashrayan Project itself.
Infrastructure vs behaviour
Another noticeable problem is clogged drainage systems. Next to the buildings of each block and alongside the road, a drainage system has been installed, but due to uncontrolled dumping of garbage, the drains have become clogged, and whenever it rains, water accumulates on the road.
The waste containers are dysfunctional, with garbage overflowing from them and fouling the surrounding areas. No instructions were seen on the waste bins indicating where to dispose of different types of waste. Hence, people are throwing plastic, food waste, and other trash altogether, which makes recycling or proper disposal nearly impossible.
Large piles of garbage are accumulating in key areas, such as near the buildings, the tea stall, and the food court, due to the lack of timely disposal of unsegregated waste. The rotting smell from waste piles not only disrupts the daily lives of residents and local businesses but also poses a significant threat to public health. The question arises as to why waste management has failed in the community, despite the presence of sufficient waste containers.
Most residents previously lived in rural coastal areas where they had direct access to open land, rivers, and communal farming spaces. At Khurushkul, the multi-storey apartments with identical layouts limit their freedom of movement, taking away the personal touches and flexibility they had in rural homes.
Firmly attached to traditional rural practices, structured apartment living can also be alienating. Even after shifting to urban-style settings, they received no proper guidance on how to adjust to this new lifestyle.
Behavioral orientation and social integration support are essential to ensure successful resettlement. Relocation without attention to cultural norms, livelihoods, and community dynamics often leads to underutilization of the very amenities meant to support recovery.
Both Program 6 of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategies and Action Plan and the Land Ministry's Climate Victim Rehabilitation Project set out the framework for resettlement and rehabilitation support for displaced climate victims.
Within this rehabilitation support, community development training on sanitation, primary health, and environmental protection will be given to climate refugees, aiming to restore their livelihoods and improve the socioeconomic resilience of displaced people.
Despite this, the government tends to take a top-down, technical approach, focusing primarily on the construction of cluster villages and physical infrastructure, which fail to integrate meaningful community participation in the planning stages.
The absence of post-displacement community integration often results in a housing environment being ill-suited to family sizes and cultural practices.
Consequently, these interventions, despite their significant financial investment, risked fostering dependency rather than enabling genuine, sustainable integration and recovery, precisely because they neglected the foundational social and behavioral dimensions of resettlement.
Disruption of traditional livelihoods
Many residents at Khurushkul were traditionally fishermen and salt farmers, relying on the sea for their primary income. A report recounts the previous lifestyle of residents in Kutubdia Para, where Fishery Ghat was just a 15-minute walk away. They could reach the ghat before 6 am and go fishing in the sea.
The project area is a bit farther from the sea, with no available transportation connecting the two. Fishermen thus have been unable to sustain their traditional fishing practices that once served as their primary source of livelihood.
Hence, they have been compelled to abandon this occupation and switch to day labour jobs, which are often irregular and poorly paid, leading to more economic instability.
Additionally, unable to find solutions, the younger generation is increasingly confined to menial jobs in hotels, restaurants, and other tourism-related establishments.
Khurushkul Ashrayon Prokolpo has provided a roof overhead, but the foundation of this new community remains fragile. The next phase of investment must listen to their needs such as proper behavioral orientation, vocational training, accessible livelihoods, a guaranteed safe water supply and much more.
Integrating them into climate adaptation planning, from maintaining dykes to installing early warning systems, will ensure they are not just residents of a high-risk zone, but active guardians of their own safety.
Farhana Akter is a former Youth Fellow and Youth Fellow Assistant, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).
