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Embankments such as this one were built in the 1960s and 1970s across the coastal plain of Bangladesh to prevent tidal inundation of the landscape, thereby allowing a major increase in rice cultivation to prevent food shortages. However, preventing tidal inundation has also cut off these lands from their riverine sediment supply, and today most have subsided far below mean high water levels, making them increasingly susceptible to severe flooding from waterlogging and the impacts of storm surges.

The Sundarbans are a vast mangrove forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site that grow outside of the embankment walls of the polder. These largely pristine lands are inundated daily by the tides, delivering sediment and nutrients that maintain a healthy ecosystem and physical landscape. The average elevation of the Sundarbans is 1.0-1.5 meters higher than that found in the interior of the embanked polders, which have been cut off from their sediment supply for many decades.

Access to clean water is a serious problem for many people living in Bangladesh’s coastal region. Because much of the groundwater in this area is saline, hand-pumped- tube wells, like this one, are not always a suitable solution. Pond sand filters that treat surface water a viable alternative, but are often not well maintained and contaminated, leaving many people to rely on unfiltered surface water or the unsustainable purchase of bottled water.

Fishing is an important livelihood activity for many people living in Bangladesh’s coastal region. Here, groups of fisherman line up across the river channel during the incoming tide, when strong currents force fish into the large nets that they have deployed. This community style of fishing is a daily event that is set up around the tidal cycles.

Rice paddy cultivation is a major source of livelihood in Bangladesh. Because the natural environment of Bangladesh is so well suited to rice farming, the country has been able to expand rice-production faster than population growth over recent decades, allowing for agricultural self-sufficiency despite having one of the world’s densest populations.

Shrimp cultivation is a rapidly growing industry, primarily for export, that is transforming the environment and associated sources of livelihood as farmers convert their land from rice paddies to shrimp ponds.

Sluice gates are built to control water flow across the embankment, both for draining and flooding the landscape at different times of the year. They are often used to provide saline water from the river to shrimp ponds. Many shrimp farms built additional sluice gates or modify the embankment to allow the exchange of salt water between channels and their ponds. Here, a weakened embankment was unable to withstand the storm surge caused by Cyclone Aila, leading to failure and flooding of the polder interior.
