* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"Ten years ago we lived 3 km [1.8 miles] further out to what is now sea, but now we have to move our houses back once or twice a year as the sea takes more of the island," says Deb Mondol, a 40-year old fish drier who has worked on Ashar Char for more than 15 years.
"The weather is changing so quickly. There are more storms, which means the fishing boats can't go out to sea so we don't have fish to dry and sell. Then we don't know when the rains are coming, so we can't dry our fish like we used to, so we lose out economically," he said.
Ashar Chor is a split of land in the Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh's southern coastal region. Like many parts of the low-lying country - much of which is no more than a meter above sea level - it is prone to natural disasters. With no bulwarks against natural disasters, no early disaster warning system and growing climatic instability, Ashar Chor is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable places on earth to live and work.
"We used to drink from the rivers but now we have to walk 5 km to the nearest pump," says Karim, one resident. "Many of us have got bad skin diseases, and for the first time our children are getting sick because the water from the pump isn't clean enough."
The current predictions for the future of Bangladesh are bleak, with increased flooding in the south and the desertification of the north following an expected global rise in temperatures. And while sea level could increase by more than one metre by 2100, a water rise of just 40 cm in the Bay of Bengal would submerge 11 percent of the country's land area in the coastal zone, experts say, displacing up to 10 million people in one of the most densely populated countries on earth.
Due to constant sea level rise, Ashar Chor's natives are already moving to other parts of the country. The scenario is not only taking place in Ashar Chor but in many parts of the country as well as a result of flooding, drought and other climate-related problems. This makes life difficult particularly for people in the southern coastal region.
In Ashar Chor the only means of earning an income is drying fish. The whole community depends on it, but unpredictable weather is hampering business.
Unanticipated rain and storms, an increasing problem, makes it tough to catch fish and to dry it. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr swept through Ashar Chor, which has no cyclone shelters or early warning systems. A third of the tiny island's 2,000 people died. There have been 62 weather-related disasters in Bangladesh since 2000, and that the number is believed likely to rise as global warming rises.
People on Ashar Chor say that over the last 10 years increasingly unpredictable weather and rising sea level have cut into their ability to survive. In Ashar Chor there is no security or comfort, only a life of harshness and increasing hopelessness.
"We used to think of the sea as the thing that gave us our living. Now we are scared that another cyclone like the last one will mean we will be washed away completely," says Sharif Uddin, one resident. "I don't know what to do if this happens again."
is a documentary photographer in Bangladesh with an ongoing interest in Ashar Chor and climate change. He can be reached at khaled_chobi@yahoo.com
For captions, click on bottom right of screen, then click on Show Info in full-screen mode. Copyright Khaled Hasan/AlertNet
