Climate-Induced Migration in the Time of Coronavirus
The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages people to maintain six feet of distance between themselves and wash their hands for twenty seconds to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, for some people living in Dhaka, Bangladesh, these precautionary measures are almost impossible to abide by. Living wall-to-wall with their neighbors, sharing communal bathrooms, and fitting up to 15 people per house, the city’s overcrowding presents serious issues when it comes to controlling the pandemic.
Dhaka, like many other urban slums, is home to 20 million people – and most of its residents are not there by choice. Rather, many city dwellers migrated there due to climate-induced pressures (Raju & Ayeb-Karlsson, 2020).
Since the dawn of industrialization, humans have been releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to rising temperatures and climate change. These global temperature changes have contributed to more droughts occurring, sea levels rising, and natural disasters like tropical storms becoming more commonplace. And the impacts of these trends are felt by all. Higher temperatures can cause crop failure or harm livestock, which may prevent individuals from being able to earn a living or feed their families. Rising sea levels coupled with higher storm frequency can wipe out coastal infrastructure, leaving many more people homeless.
As communities face these dangers created by the changing climate, they are impelled to migrate. They move inland to avoid encroaching coastlines, and often have no choice but to replace their agricultural livelihoods with a hope for urban employment.
Groups facing this predicament are commonly referred to as climate refugees; however, they have no true internationally recognized refugee status. To be classified as a refugee, one must cross an international border due to fear of violence or persecution as defined by the 1951 Convention Related to the Status of Refugees (United Nations, 2020). Although climate refugees identify with a similar sense of danger, most of them remain displaced within their home country rather than moving elsewhere. In 2017 alone, 18.8 million people worldwide were internally displaced as a result of such weather patterns (2018).
In Bangladesh specifically, about two thirds of the population live less than 5 meters above sea level. As a result, flooding regularly destroys homes, businesses, and farmlands. Experts predict that as sea levels rise, about 17 percent of the country’s land will be underwater by 2050 (Ahmed, 2018). Coastal erosion also contributes to losses of 10,000 hectares of land annually. Additionally, as sea levels rise, saltwater intrusion increases soil salinity. This reduces crop production and leads to food scarcity and job losses in the region’s agricultural industry (2016).
In the face of these hardships, many families feel that relocation is their best option for survival. In Bangladesh, whole villages build temporary shelters near highways, before ultimately residing in urban slums (Ahmed, 2018). The exodus from coastal regions increases the population density in these already crowded cities, stretching their limited resources even thinner.
One such city populated by many climate-induced migrants, Mumbai, India, suffers from close quarters, poor sanitation, a limited water supply, and poor public health services — all of which make it especially susceptible to COVID-19. Even with a lockdown in place, avoiding contact with others is impossible, just like in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Right now, food markets and public squares are hectic with people purchasing necessities or awaiting meals from the government, especially due to restrictions on people going into work (Raju and Ayeb-Karlsson, 2020). The city alone, representing 1.5 percent of India’s total population, accounts for nearly 25 percent of India’s coronavirus deaths, illustrating the state of emergency (Loke & Gettleman, 2020).
Overpopulated cities around the world bear the brunt of the Coronavirus crisis – a problem worsened by climate-induced migration. Reducing global carbon emissions will be a key step towards ensuring broader population distribution in coastal regions, as it can help slow the rate of sea level rise significantly.
By taking action now to reduce emissions, we have the potential to reduce the magnitude of another pandemic in the future. We can reduce the impacts felt disproportionately by densely populated cities near sea level, ultimately saving both people and the planet.
References:
Raju, E., & Ayeb-Karlsson, S. (2020). COVID-19: How do you self-isolate in a refugee camp? International Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01381-8
United Nations. Climate change and disaster displacement. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/climate-change-and-disasters.html.
Ahmed, B. (2018). Who takes responsibility for the climate refugees? International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, 10(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijccsm-10-2016-0149
IDMC: Global Report on Internal Displacement 2018. International Displacement Monitoring Center. (2018). https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2018/.
Bangladesh: Building Resilience to Climate Change. The World Bank. (2016, October 9). https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/10/07/bangladesh-building-resilience-to-climate-change.
Loke, A., & Gettleman, J. (2020, May 14). India’s ‘Maximum City’ Engulfed by Coronavirus. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/world/asia/mumbai-lockdown-coronavirus.html.
