“We have always had flooding here in Bangladesh, but in recent years it has become much worse. It seems like there’s something wrong with nature. I’m scared that my whole village will disappear. I’m also scared of dying,' says Rebeka, 14.

Our whole village flooded in three days. Even though I live a couple of hundred metres from the river, the water level still came half way up our house. We tried to get the beds and other things above the water level using bamboo stands that my dad made. My dad and my big brother built a raft from banana trees and we cooked our food there, since our kitchen was flooded.'

Things are hardest for us when the floods come, because so many people get sick.
   ‘I got an eye infection and a rash. My brother had a fever. Almost everyone in the village gets diarrhoea since it’s hard to find clean drinking water when the dirty river water spills over into our wells and pumps.  We had to sell our animals to get money for food, since our fields and vegetable patches were under water. Lots of us had to sell cows and goats in order to survive, so everyone got much less money for them than usual.'

No school
The schools were destroyed and it was impossible to get there because of all the water. Most of them still haven’t opened again and it’s so awful not to be able to go to school. We are missing out on our education and that’s no good. Without a good education it’s impossible to have a decent standard of living here in Bangladesh.
   Education is most important for us girls. If a girl completes her education she has a much better chance of a decent life. She can make her own decisions and other people, even family members, listen to her much more.

Scared of dying
‘We have always had floods, but they have become much worse in recent years. There is more water in the river now and the floods come at strange times of the year. When the water rises there are massive landslides and huge areas of land collapse into the river. Buildings and people are dragged in and children die. If things carry on like this I’m afraid my whole village will disappear. Where will we go then? I really don’t know what will happen to us, and I’m worried about the future. Lots of people will die trying to escape the waters.'

Text: Andreas Lönn
Photo: Ragna Jorming