Munem Wasif, Bangladesh

Salt Water Tears

In 1974 it was heralded as a beacon of good fortune to the inhabitants of all southwestern region of Bangladesh. It was a matter of great pride to them that their part of soil, so precious, was to earn so much foreign money! Everyone was dreaming of the coming days of change. As time runs out dreams fade. It turned like any other good dream -- tiger shrimps are for the clever and rich. The community is only expendable. People started slapping their foreheads out of dismay as their homes, cultivable lands, drinking water even trees, fish, air all were exploited by the muscle men in the name of foreign money and shrimp cultivation.

Now in two decades the whole region’s air has turned heavy with brine. Rippling sea waves, dried river skeletons and endless fields. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! Each family needs about six pitchers of water a day, and they have to walk seven miles to get it --ignoring knee-deep mud in the rainy season, braving the biting cold of winter.

The historic relationship between life and water has been ignored by destructive agricultural and fishing policy, with no regard to the knowledge or needs of the local people. In the 1980s, water was first sealed off into enclosures, to begin commercial shrimp farming. A 1994 government order, arbitrarily passed without discussion, declared the entire coast be made available for shrimp farming. Farmers were ousted from their land, became internal refugees who had to turn to daily labour to earn a living. Men and women had numerous occupations in the old marshland. But now, only a few people are needed for shrimp farming.

Now migrants point to what was once their home in the middle of a shrimp field, and with teary eyes wonder how can they dream of a nightmare?
Pavel Partha

Translation: Naeem Mohaiemen