# Bangladesh's Hospital Ships



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*FEATURE-In climate change-hit Bangladesh, hospital boats keep healthcare afloat*
_Excerpt_
22 May 2019

DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Living on a secluded island in northern Bangladesh, several hours from the nearest hospital, Abdul Jalil believed he was destined to die blind.

That changed earlier this month when the 67-year-old underwent free cataract surgery on a ship moored next to his home.

"I can't wait for my eye bandage to come off," Jalil told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It's been so long since I last saw my son properly. I think I have forgotten how he looks."

Jalil lives on an island formed about two decades ago on the Jamuna River from sand and silt deposits.

These islands - known as chars in Bangladesh - are constantly changing shape as they erode and reform, a process that is quickening as a result of more extreme rainfall associated with climate change.

The erosion makes survival difficult for their residents - mostly poor farmers - and discourages building of permanent hospitals, researchers say.

But floating hospital ships, run by a non-governmental organisation and equipped with medical facilities and doctors, now provide free treatment in the chars - a system that might be a model for other nations hit by worsening climate threats.

Without the ship, the char's residents must hire a boat and endure a day-long journey to the nearest town hospital, said Kazi Golam Rasul, head of health at Friendship, the NGO.

"They have to spend a lot of time and money to arrange a simple doctor's visit. It discourages them. That's why many residents visit hospitals only when the disease or pain becomes really bad. That is very dangerous," said Rasul.

The NGO currently runs two ships and is in the process of building five more floating hospitals with the help of the King Abdullah Foundation, an organisation started by the former Saudi monarch.

After five years, the new ships will be handed over to the Bangladesh government, which believes Friendship's method of reaching people in remote areas needs to expand.

"This is a viable strategy to get to people who are hard to reach and have no access to medical services," said Nawsher Ahmed Sikder, a civil servant from the Ministry of Finance.

'LIFE AND DEATH'

Low-lying Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to climate change and researchers say people living on the chars, far away from the mainland, are at the forefront of experiencing climate impacts, from flooding and storms to worsening erosion.

According to government records, at least 466 families living on chars in Gaibandha in northern Bangladesh lost their homes due to river erosion last year and 67 were forced to move.

In all, about 10 million people live on chars in Bangladesh according to the National Char Alliance, an advocacy group.

More : https://uk.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-climatechange-environment-idUKL5N22S2X0


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