Adaptation in Gurguria, or: What are "Climate Resilient Technologies"?

In Gurguria, a small village in Bagerhat District, we meet "beneficiaries" of an adaptation project ADAMS is implementing under the Community Climate Change Project (CCCP). These women have been introduced to "climate resilient technologies" for fishing, livestock activities and homestead gardening.

The village is located close to a river, and highly flood-prone. An embankment exists, but frequetly leaks or breaks down. On top of that, the area is affected by saline intrusion: Salt water is streaming inlands during high tides trough rivers and channels. Instead of producing rice, the farmers in this village therefore mainly switched to shrimp farming - a highly contentious business, because inundating former rice field with salt water further increases the salinity of the soil in the whole area.

The women of Gurguria keep some poultry, and grow vegetables. These stalls, raised on pillars, were provided under the CCCP project. The women also recieved training on how to protect their chicken and ducks from waterborne diseases.

As part of the project, nearly the whole village was raised on a plinth to protect it from flooding. The work has just been finished.

In our group discussion, the women emphasise that they are very satisfied with ADAMS and the whole project. They also feel their living situation has improved in recent years, because they changed from merely cultivating rice to diversified income activietes, including shrimp: "We have three meals a day now", "We have electricity now", "We can build a better future for our children", they say. 

Thanks to the experience of ICCCAD researcher Sarder, I realise the problems of the plithing project: 

• It is build out of sand, which is susceptible to being washed away by water. 
• The plinth is designed in the wrong way: The edges are right-angled and steep – if they were gradually inclining, they would be less erosive.

This plinth is thus endangered endangered to be washed away in heavy rain once the monsoon season starts. 

The vulnerability of plinthed houses to cyclones has also not been considered in the project. 

Experts from the government  implementing agency and technical advisers have been involved in designing and monitoring the project - but apparently, noone realised these flaws.

What I also don't like about the project is the fact that the community members (i.e. those defined as "beneficiaries") had to contribute 600 Taka on their own to have their houses raised. According to ADAMS, this is necessary to establish "ownership" of the project, and ensure maintenance. Consequently, though, not all houses were raised, and only some families got flood-resilient sanitation facilities.   

The houses that were not raised are now lower than the plinth, and even more endangered to flooding. 

If you aim to address the poorest, most vulnerable people with your project - I guess you need a different approach.