Nurun Nabi loads tin sheets and bamboo poles onto a wooden boat on a cloudy morning. His house, which was constructed only a year ago on a precarious island in the Brahmaputra River, is in danger of being engulfed by water.
The farmer and father of four has had to relocate twice in the past year. "The river is coming closer every day," Nabi remarked, his voice strained with weariness. "Suffering is a part of our nature. Our battle never ends. The number of times the river has taken me home is beyond me.
The 50 year old Nabi is forced to relocate to another char, a transient island created by river silt. The Brahmaputra, which rises in the Himalayas and travels through China and India before arriving in Bangladesh, has already taken his rice and lentil fields. He replied, "I don't know what awaits us there in the new home," as he turned to face the broad brown river. "Maybe a few years, if I'm fortunate. Maybe a month if not. This is how we live.
In the Kurigram district of northern Bangladesh, hundreds of families suffer the same fate each year. In addition to losing their homes, individuals also lose their property, livestock, and harvests when riverbanks collapse.
Once lifelines for millions, the Brahmaputra, Teesta, and Dharla rivers are now unpredictable and degrading land more quickly than ever before.
Among Bangladesh's most vulnerable areas are the chars, which are sandy, shifting islands dispersed over the country's northern plains. Families repeatedly rebuild, only to have everything they own stolen by the river.
"The water comes without warning," 70 year old farmer Habibur Rahman, who has lived on multiple chars, remarked. "The riverside has shifted by daybreak when you go to sleep at night.
You are homeless when you wake up. Our lives are not peaceful. Bangladesh's fight sends a sobering warning to world leaders as attention shifts to Brazil, which will host the U.N. climate summit from November 10-21.
Building embankments, enhancing flood predictions, and leading the way in community based adaptation, the nation is frequently hailed as an example of resilience. However, those initiatives will be unsuccessful in the absence of more robust international backing and climate money.
"People here are paying the price for emissions they never made," stated Ainun Nishat, a specialist in climate change and water resources. "If COP30 means anything, it must deliver real funding for loss and damage and help vulnerable nations like ours protect lives and land before it's too late."
The melting of the Himalayan glaciers that supply the Brahmaputra and Teesta rivers is accelerating, according to scientists, making climate change obvious in Kurigram.
"Glaciers are melting at a rate that is about twice as fast as it was in the 1990s. The climate change specialist Nishat stated, "More water is flowing downstream, adding to already swollen rivers."
Simultaneously, the monsoon has become more unpredictable, arriving earlier, lingering longer, and falling in sharp, abrupt spurts. "The rhythm of the seasons has changed," Nishat remarked. "When it rains, it pours excessively, and when it ceases, droughts frequently occur. Erosion and flooding are being made much worse by this instability.
Bangladesh has some of the most severe effects of climate change, he continued, despite contributing less than 0.5 percent of the world's carbon emissions. By 2050, one in seven Bangladeshis may be relocated due to climate related calamities, according to World Bank estimates.
Moving has become the norm for 50 year old Kosim Uddin, a father of seven. "In my life, the river has taken my home 30 or 35 times-maybe more," he stated. "Every time we rebuild, the river comes again," Uddin remarked, staring at the water. "Where can we go, though? Now, the entire planet is made of water.
A large portion of the burden of the ongoing relocation falls on women. Shahina Begum, a 30 year old mother of two, remembered cooking for her family during last year's floods while standing in waist-deep water.
"We moved six times in ten years," she stated. "Every time we start again, the river takes it back." Every relocation presents new challenges for Shahina. "It is even more difficult for women and adolescent girls," she stated. "We have to find dry ground, cook, take care of children - and there is no privacy or safety."
After local groups installed geobags large sacks packed with sand that protect riverbanks against erosion about 300 people on Kheyar Alga Char were able to remain there for three years.
"Geobags have made a huge difference," 39 year old Johurul Islam, who lost his house over ten times before coming here, remarked.
"The river hasn't taken our land for the past three years. I feel somewhat optimistic about the future for the first time. In order to endure seasonal floods, local NGOs are also assisting in the construction of raised villages, which are groups of houses erected above the ground.
Islam expressed cautious optimism while standing beside the riverside that has been stable for the past three years. "Maybe the river will come again one day," he remarked with a slight smile. Children were playing on solid ground all around him, and the evening breeze brought their laughter. "We'll be prepared this time. The land is holding for the time being, and so are we.
