Sujoy Chaudhury
Cyclone “Yaas”, 2021, Coastal West Bengal. Photo Credit: Supratim Bhattacharjee, Mangrove Photography Awards 2024
Introduction:
Globally low-lying coastal communities are increasingly at risk of climate change exacerbated environmental hazards. Sea-level rise (SLR) accompanying climate change is already causing significant and costly impacts across low elevation coastal communities and these are expected to continue in the 21st century and beyond. (Hauer, M.E., Hardy, D., Kulp, S.A. et al.). The Relative Sea Level Rise [RSLR] over the last 100 years has driven large increases in annual water level exceedances above minor coastal elevation thresholds.
In 2000, the global population living in Low Elevation Costal Zones [LECZ] was estimated (Neumann at el., 2015) at 623 million which accounted for 10.9 % of the global population, this number is expected to grow to 949 million people in 2030 and more than one billion people in the LECZ globally by 2060 with an average population density of 405 people/km2. Asia had the largest LECZ population in the year 2000 (461 million or 73% of the total LECZ population, and this is most likely to be the case in 2030 and 2060.
South Central Asia including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and the Islamic Republic of Iran is projected to have the highest population totals in the LECZ of all Asian regions by 2060. India, which could experience a three-fold increase of its LECZ population between the baseline year 2000 (64 million; 6.1% of its total population) and the year 2060 (216 million; 10.3% of its total population). (Neumann at el., 2015).
The Indian Context:
The relentless rise of sea levels threatens to displace and endangers hundreds of millions living in vulnerable coastal regions. The Green Climate Fund [ GCF,2018) estimates that India’s coastline is expected to be among the most affected by climate change. Impacts such as extreme weather events and sea level rise, and approximately 250 million people (14 percent of the country’s population) who live within 50 kilometers of coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
This vulnerability is acutely felt in regions like coastal West Bengal, particularly the Indian Sundarbans, where communities face the dual burden of climate change and existing developmental challenges. In 2021, Cyclone “Yaas” devastated coastal West Bengal, causing widespread destruction and exacerbating these challenges, particularly the already fragile sanitation infrastructure. This blog explores the long-term impact of Cyclone “Yaas” on women’s access to functional on-site sanitation systems in Mousuni Gram Panchayat, Namkhana block, West Bengal, and calls for a global response rooted in resilience.
Climate change drives sea-level rise, intensifies cyclones, and increases storm surges, threatening coastal populations worldwide. The IPCC reports project a significant rise in global sea levels by the end of the century, placing millions more at risk. These escalating hazards devastate vulnerable communities, particularly in developing countries. Developing nations face unique vulnerabilities due to infrastructure limitations, increased exposure to climate hazards, socioeconomic factors, and governance challenges.
International frameworks like the Paris Agreement (UNFCC, 2015), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, (UNDRR, 2015) and the Government of India’s Disaster Management Plan of 2019 (NDMA,2019), emphasize the need for disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and climate change adaptation. However, implementation gaps persist, leaving many coastal communities exposed to these increasing risks.
The Local Context [Indian Sundarbans]:
Cyclone “Yaas” caused extensive damage to infrastructure in West Bengal (NIDM,2021) including sanitation systems, leading to prolonged disruptions and a sanitation crisis. This has had a severe impact on the lives of coastal residents, particularly women, who face significant health, safety, and dignity challenges due to the lack of access to functional sanitation. Mousuni Gram Panchayat is highly vulnerable to sea related hazards. Cyclone “Yaas” did not create the sanitation crisis, it magnified already existing deficiencies. Women in particular had to revert to the indignity of open defecation. The situation in Mousuni reflects the global trend of climate change exacerbating existing vulnerabilities in coastal communities and the erosion of development gains.
Methodology:
The proposed research utilizes Participatory Action Research (PAR), a crucial tool that places the voices and experiences of women at the heart of the investigation, fostering collaborative solutions. This methodology is particularly suitable for this situation, as it allows for the inclusion of the affected community, and the building of solutions from within.
Ongoing Research Insights:
Preliminary findings reveal that women in Mousuni face significant challenges due to the prolonged lack of access to functional sanitation. One woman shared, “we had celebrated the joy of becoming open defecation free along with the rest of the country in 2019, but our joy has been short-lived, since the cyclone in 2021, we have been once again forced the indignity of open defecation as our damaged toilets are yet to be reconstructed”.
Health workers report a surge in waterborne diseases, skin infections, and reproductive health issues, directly linked to the lack of sanitation. Local government representatives’ perspectives highlight the delays in planning and implementing recovery actions, often reflecting broader issues of governance and resource allocation that hinder effective climate change adaptation and disaster recovery.
The potential impacts of climate change on coastal populations will be determined by the health status of the populations, its capacity to cope with climate hazards and control infectious diseases and other public health measures. Communities forced to revert to open defecation is an absolute disaster as the health outcomes of sanitation, which is cohort based is compromised.
Call to Action:
Addressing the sanitation crisis in coastal communities requires urgent action at both local and global levels. Recommendations include:
- Integrating climate change adaptation and the principals of “Build Back Better” into national and global sanitation policies and programs.
- Investing in generating data at the hyperlocal level to inform policies and programs (SBM-Grameen, Phase II).
- Strengthening local governance and community participation in disaster preparedness and recovery for sustainability.
- Ensuring resources for early recovery and to ensure equitable access to sanitation services, particularly for women and vulnerable groups.
- Promoting action research and use of technology to map risks, exposure, vulnerability and capacity of social groups along with their geographic identification.
- Scaling up successful local interventions to address global challenges, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 6, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Conclusion:
Recovery efforts following climate induced disasters, present an opportunity to ‘Build Back Better,’ not simply replacing what was lost, but constructing more resilient sanitation infrastructure based on hyperlocal geospatial data triangulated with data from participatory community vulnerability assessments.
This approach not only aligns with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which emphasizes the need to invest in disaster risk reduction for resilience it also ensures that development gains made in sanitation are really “sustainable”.
The proposed participatory action research, aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the chronic sanitation challenges faced by disaster-affected coastal communities and provide preliminary insights for informing future research and policy recommendations. We must act now, to ensure a more resilient future and keep our promise of “intergenerational ethics” when we agreed to the Sustainable Development agenda.
References:
- GCF,2018. https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp084
- Hauer, M.E., Hardy, D., Kulp, S.A. et al. Assessing population exposure to coastal flooding due to sea level rise. Nat Commun 12, 6900 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27260-1
- NDMA,2019. https://ndma.gov.in/sites/default/files/PDF/ndmp-2019.pdf
- Neumann, B., Vafeidis, A. T., Zimmermann, J. & Nicholls, R. J. Future Coastal Population Growth and Exposure to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Flooding – A Global Assessment. PLOS ONE 10(6): e0131375. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131375
- NIDM,2021.https://nidm.gov.in/journal/PDF/Journal/NIDMJOURNAL_JulDec2021/NIDMJOURNAL_JulDec2021c.pdf
- SBM-G, Phase II. https://swachhbharatmission.ddws.gov.in/#:~:text=Swachh%20Bharat%20Mission:%20Driving%20India’s,bolstered%20by%20contemporary%20governmental%20efforts.
- UNDRR,2015.https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/what-sendai-framework
- UNFCC,2015. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement
Acknowledgement:
This article written as part of the Public Policy Qualitative Participatory Action Research Fieldwork Fellowship- Cohort 5.0, conducted by IMPRI, New Delhi, would not have been possible without the constant encouragement of Prof. Vibhuti Patel [Chair & Course Director], Session Speakers and the Convenors and Coordinating team at IMPRI.
About the Researcher:
A civil engineer by training and an aspiring social scientist, Sujoy is the co-founder of the Centre for Sustainable Solutions [CSS], a non-profit registered in West Bengal. With over three decades of work in the social sector, implementing development and humanitarian response programs across India and Bangladesh, Sujoy currently focuses his work on strengthening the Science- Policy- Society interface through action research projects and programs that are at the intersection of Disaster Risk reduction and Climate Change and implemented at the hyperlocal level. This paper has been written in association with IMPRI, as part of Public Policy Qualitative Participatory Action Research Fieldwork Fellowship-Cohort 5.0.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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