Dhaka, Bangladesh. File image courtesy AFP.

Dhaka (AFP) Oct 18, 2009 – When a cyclone destroyed her home two years ago, Shahana Begum joined the swelling ranks of Bangladeshi “climate refugees” who, experts say, could one day overwhelm the capital Dhaka. When a cyclone destroyed her home two years ago, Shahana Begum joined the swelling ranks of Bangladeshi “climate refugees” who, experts say, could one day overwhelm the capital Dhaka. Shahana’s family, like more than half a million people in the impoverished nation, lost her shanty home and all her belongings when cyclone Sidr slammed into southern Bangladesh in November 2007, claiming more than 3,500 lives. “I moved to Dhaka because there was nowhere else to go,” said Shahana, for whom home is now a slum on the dry banks of the capital’s biggest river. … In May this year, another cyclone, which killed 300 people and left 375,000 people homeless, also destroyed 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of roads and embankments. The country’s leading climate change scientist says it is a sign of things to come. “It used to be that we would have a big cyclone every 15 to 20 years. We are getting a big one now every two or three years,” said Atiq Rahman, who was on the UN’s Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). … “At the end of the day people will have to move out of the country. No one wants to leave their home but at the end of the day it will happen. Dhaka is already under tremendous pressure,” Rahman said. …

‘Climate refugees’ add strain to seething Bangladesh capital