Majida Begum, 60, whose home was washed away in June 2022 floods in the Sunamganj, northern Bangladesh. Here Begum stands under an elevated canopy of bitter gourd vines – a vegetable garden designed to survive if and when her village floods again. Fatima Tuj Johora for NPR
By Lauren Frayer, National Public Radio (NPR), March 26, 2023
Majida Begum squats in the mud where her kitchen used to be, scaling fish with a dull blade.
Seasonal floods are a part of life on the riverbank where Begum lives in northern Bangladesh. Each spring, when monsoon rains arrive, a web of narrow rivers – like capillaries crisscrossing the flesh of the country – swell into a shallow sea.
But these annual floods – the lifeblood of the region's agricultural cycle – have become erratic in recent years. And last year's were the worst Begum had seen in her 60 years.
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