Prova Mridha still remembers Cyclone Sidr, which swept through Bangladesh in 2007 causing widespread devastation. The mother of one left behind her livestock and hid from the storm in a local school, which had been turned into a makeshift shelter.
“When I returned home, I found the livestock were killed or had been swept away,” she recalls.
Midrha lives in Joykha, a village close to the seaport of Mongla Upazila, an area increasingly vulnerable to cyclones and rising sea levels, both of which have been linked to climate change.
Her experience is typical for many in Bangladesh. More than 80 per cent of the country’s 174 million people live in the flood-prone Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. Many of those occupy lands less than 2 metres above sea level, leaving them dangerously exposed to increasingly powerful cyclones and storm surges.
To help communities cope with water-related disasters, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and several partners launched a pilot project to build flood-resilient homes across the country. So far, the effort – also supported by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre and BRAC, an international development organization – has built 37 residences.
One of those belongs to Prova Mridha.
The house – which cost around US$12,000 – is designed to withstand cyclone-force winds and is built on an elevated platform to protect it from flooding. It has rainwater harvesting systems to provide safe drinking water, rooftop solar panels to supply electricity and an indoor livestock pen. The house even doubles as an emergency shelter capable of accommodating up to 40 people.
“When the roads are flooded or blocked, these shelters are close to where people live, so they don’t have to risk traveling miles with elderly relatives, young children, or livestock,” said Muhammad Liakath Ali, the Director of Climate Change with BRAC.
In a country where more than 7,000 cyclone shelters are estimated to be needed by 2025, these types of homes are essential, said Mirey Atallah, Chief of UNEP’s Adaptation and Resilience Branch, UNEP.
“For Bangladesh and many other developing countries, climate change is not some future threat – it is here, now,” she says. “The world needs to massively step up how it’s adapting to this challenge if we’re going to protect decades of hard-won development gains.”
According to UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2024, the developing world only has access to a fraction of the funding it needs to adapt to climate change, which has been linked to everything from heatwaves, to rising seas to more frequent and more intense storms. At the recently concluded UN Climate Change Summit in Azerbaijan, countries agreed to channel up US$300 billion a year to developing nations to help them adapt with climate change.
“Sometimes the arguments about climate finance can seem quite abstract,” Atallah says. “But what that finance means is more of these climate-resilient houses can be built, protecting locals and building their resilience.”
Nearly 190 people live currently in the storm-resistant houses. The buildings, which are spread across six districts, housed 1,000 people during Cyclone Remal, which unleashed torrential rains on large parts of Bangladesh in 2024.
Mridha and several neighbours took refuge in her home during the storm, which pounded Joykha. “The havoc I witnessed was nothing like before,” she said.
But the building, which also served as a haven for Mridha’s cows and chickens, and her neighbours’ livestock, held firm.
“The best part is being able to shelter my neighbours,” she said. “I’m safe now with this house.”