The root causes of landslide vulnerability in Bangladesh

Bayes Ahmed

doi:10.1007/s10346-020-01606-0

Abstract

Communities living in the Chittagong Hill Districts (CHD) of Bangladesh recurrently observe landslide disasters during the monsoon season (June–September). CHD is primarily dominated by three distinct groups of hill communities, namely, urbanised hill (Bengali), indigenous tribal and stateless Rohingya refugees. Landslide vulnerability amongst them is complex and varies between physical, social, economic, environmental, institutional and cultural dimensions. This study aims to understand driving forces of landslide disasters in the region by emphasising human factors. Data from the three contrasting communities were collected through participatory workshops, in-depth interviews and fieldwork observation. The participants were local people and landslide experts who were purposefully selected from five case study communities in the CHD. They ranked different socio-economic problems, identified causes of landslides and proposed landslide mitigation action plans. Results suggest that the urbanised Bengali and Rohingya refugee communities are highly vulnerable to landslides. The urbanised hill communities largely deal with poverty, social injustice, lack of planning regulations and illegal hill cutting issues, whereas the Rohingya refugees’ predominant constraints are linked to the ongoing genocide and state-sponsored violence in Myanmar hindering their sustainable repatriation, and their protracted living conditions in Bangladesh. The indigenous tribal communities are comparatively resilient to landslides due to their unique history, traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and lifestyle. Landslides in the CHD should be characterised as socio-natural hazards since the components of landslide disasters are profoundly intertwined with the culture–conflict–corruption nexus.

Highlights

In recent years, landslide disasters have caused considerable loss to human lives and damage to critical infrastructure, ecosystems, livelihoods and local economy in the Chittagong Hill Districts (CHD) of Bangladesh (Rabby & Li, 2019)
Participants who are living on high slopes have no fear of floods, but they are worried about landslides after any heavy rainfall (Zaman et al, 2020)
Landslide vulnerability of the Rohingya refugees The case of Rohingya refugees, who are officially known as the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN), is unique and complex (Table 3). They were forced to leave their place of birth in Rakhine due to communal violence (Buddhists vs Muslims), and systematic torture and genocide imposed by the Myanmar Army (ICJ, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Landslide disasters have caused considerable loss to human lives and damage to critical infrastructure, ecosystems, livelihoods and local economy in the Chittagong Hill Districts (CHD) of Bangladesh (Rabby & Li, 2019). Landslide disaster has been categorised as an emerging threat at the national level driven by the impacts of increased frequency of extreme precipitation events (Khan et al, 2020), population pressure in flat lands, high rates of urbanisation, hill cutting and deforestation, and lack of cultural knowledge (Alam, 2020; Ahmed, 2017). The recent trend of spontaneous urbanisation in the hills and the resulting impact of landslides on hilly communities indicate a sharp escalation of landslide disaster risk in Bangladesh (Ahmed, 2015; Chisty, 2014). Between the years 2000 and 2018, a number of catastrophic landslide events killed over 725 people in the CHD (Sultana, 2020). Most notably in June 2017, monsoon rainfall-triggered landslides claimed at least

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