Assessing the Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in South-Western Water Logging Coastal Bangladesh

South-western coastal Bangladesh is characterized by low-lying topography, high productive mangrove ecosystem and unique biodiversity. The objective of the study was to assess the vulnerability, causes of the vulnerability, and impact of water logging due to climate change on livelihoods of different communities of the locality. Adaptations made by the community people in response to climate change were also explored. The study was conducted in Surulia and Kumira unions under Tala upazila of Satkhira district on November 2010. Data were collected through focus group discussions (FGDs), consultative meeting with various stakeholders also used secondary data of Bangladesh Meteorological Department of Ministry of Defence, GoB. The major vulnerabilities were water logging, scarcity of safe drinking water, lack of housing and sanitary latrines, submergence of crop land, lack of fodder and keeping place for livestock and poultry, and lack of employment opportunity. The water logging is becoming worsened due to faulty plan of embankment made by the government in 1959. The major adaptations were dredging river, drilling of elevated tube wells and sanitary latrines, raising homesteads, re-construction of embankments, linked canal re-excavation, and transfer of technology for fish culture.