Using the rivers to transport information, health care, and energy is a brilliant idea--independent of the dire circumstances--comparable to the invention of the car, or the building of the railroads (Click Image To Enlarge)
MOHAMMED REZWAN IS HEADING UP A NONPROFIT THAT BUILDS SCHOOLS AND HOMES THAT FLOAT.
Climate change is getting a lot of attention in America this fall, thanks in part to the havoc wreaked upon New York by Hurricane Sandy. But that’s nothing compared to its effects on low-lying Bangladesh, which has struggled with global warming-induced floods for years now. Bangladesh now endures two annual floods, leaving millions of people without access to clean water, electricity, and other basic amenities for huge portions of the year.
Since the rising tides of global warming won’t be slowing down anytime soon, a group called Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha has come up with an incredibly simple alternative: build homes, health care offices, and schools that can float. Founded by a Bangladeshi architect named Mohammed Rezwan in 2008, the nonprofit runs a fleet of almost a hundred boats that offer education to kids and their parents, as well as access to libraries, health care, and information about agriculture and financial management. One young student says.
“I like the floating school. During the Monsoon, water is everywhere. Everything is shut down. Only the floating school comes around at that time, right up to our doors.”
Rezwan, speaking over email, compares the program to a cross between a school and a school bus.
Rezwan says that Shidhulai is reaching 1,657 students right now (Click Image To Enlarge)
The number is likely to grow--scientists say that nearly 20% of the low-lying country will be underwater by 2030 (Click Image To Enlarge)
What’s fascinating about Shidhulai is the technology it’s actively developing to help families in the lowlands. Writes the nonprofit.
“Issues like this need local solutions by local people.”
Rezwan oversees a small army of engineers and technicians, who manufacture everything from PV panels to bicycle-powered pumps. He’s developed a warning system for floods, and three different types of solar-powered lamps, which are given to families for free if their kids attend school on a regular basis. The batteries can be used to light homes or charge cell phones, and they can be recharged at the boats on a weekly basis. Rezwan also designs the boats, he explains,
"To adjust to any equipment configuration as well as to protect the electronic equipment from inclement weather, even during the height of the monsoon."
Each school boat has Internet, a laptop, and a small library.
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha runs a fleet of 88 boats that offer education, health care, and connectivity to flood-stranded Bangladeshi families (Click Image To Enlarge)
The nonprofit was founded by an architect named Mohammed Rezwan, who designed the boats, along with several solar-powered systems and lamps (Click Image To Enlarge)
The shift has ended up offering new opportunities to people who otherwise would have little access to these types of services (Click Image To Enlarge)
Shidhulai also focuses on improving families’ access to farming techniques. Rezwan created a system he calls "solar water farming," which lets stranded villagers harness solar power to continue feeding themselves even without access to land or fertilizer.
He tells Co.Design.
"[The system includes] floating beds made of water hyacinth (to grow vegetables), a portable circular enclosure created by fishing net and bamboo strips (to raise fish) and floating duck coop powered by solar lamp. It has a recycling system--duck manure is used as fish foods, old water hyacinth beds are sold as organic fertilizer, and the sun energy lights up the duck coop to maintain the egg production."
Rather than wondering whether they should be building homes near the river (as New Yorkers are now doing), Shidhulai is actively building homes on the river. Rezwan says that 46 of its 88 boats are being converted into climate shelters for displaced families. The shift has ended up offering new opportunities to people who otherwise would have little access to these types of services. Using the rivers to transport information, health care, and energy is a brilliantly simple idea, despite the dire circumstances. After all, breakthroughs in transportation usually go hand-in-hand with education and economic growth. Rezwan says.
”It’s helping people adapt to the changing climate. And at the same time, it’s teaching them how to protect the environment and use the natural resources.”
332 schools were destroyed in the 2007 floods. Rezwan’s idea? Let’s put the schools on the river (Click Image To Enlarge)
Each of the floating schools has an Internet-connected laptop, as well as a library (Click Image To Enlarge)
Shidhulai also offers adult education, ranging from agriculture to financial management (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: It's just incredible how a country like Bangladesh, in spite of its extreme povery, is still educating its children through shear creativity and resourcefulness. Schools that float is a great idea, and it works, in spite of incredible disadvantages. This is somethig that entire world can learn from.
Courtesy of an article dated December 8, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
RE Bangladesh suffering from floods due to global warming.
Bangladesh suffers from floods due to weather patterns known as monsoons. The claim these events are becoming worse due to rising sea levels has the same amount of scientific evidence as the claim that the Himalayan glaciers were disappearing.
Sea level has been rising since the little ice age. It will continue to rise most likely until the current Holocene interglacial period starts coming to an end. To determine if there is a man-made component to that rise one must look at the rate of rise - is it increasing? The answer is not really. No islands have disappeared beneath the waves. No large school dislocations - ie the 50 million climate refugees the UN said we would see by 2010 - have occurred. The fact is that people are moving into the regions that models said would be negatively impacted by sea level rise and global warming.
Most of the alarming predictions attributed to global warming are the result of models. The model temperature increases then they model sea level rise.
Posted by: tim gasser | 12/11/2012 at 06:42 PM