"Almost every one of my patients is here because of water-related diseases that were nowhere near as much of a problem before," said Shivapada Mondol. "The circumstances are verging on dangerous." On a stretcher outside his office, a skeletally thin old man retched loudly; the man's daughter tried to push more fluids into him.
“這里的每一個病人都患的是由水中病菌引起的疾病,而這些病在以前根本不值一提?!彼雇吲吝_(dá)·蒙多說道?!艾F(xiàn)在的情況已經(jīng)很危險(xiǎn)了?!痹谒k公室外的一副擔(dān)架上,一個骨瘦如柴的老人大聲地嘔吐著;他的女兒正試圖喂給他一些流食。
Finally, as if to illustrate the impossibility of living in the new Sundarbans, several dozen families pulled up stakes in April and moved to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. No longer able to make much of a living off the land, they opted to join the million to 1.5 million other villagers from southern coastal communities who've already relocated to the overloaded city, according to Atiq Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies. The World Bank suggests that by 2050, more than 13 million Bangladeshis -- including most of those on the margins of the Sundarbans -- might migrate because of climate-related crises. The forecast in West Bengal is similarly alarming.
最后,仿佛是為了印證在新孫德本爾斯生存的艱難,幾十個家庭4月份搬家去了達(dá)卡,孟加拉國的首都。因?yàn)闊o法再靠土地謀生,他們選擇像那幾百萬來自南部的其他村民一樣,搬去已經(jīng)負(fù)荷過重的城市,孟加拉國高級研究中心的主任阿提·拉曼透露道。世界銀行表示,到2050年,超過1300萬孟加拉人--包括大部分居住在孫德本爾斯邊緣的居民--可能會由于氣候變化導(dǎo)致的災(zāi)難而移民。西孟加拉邦也在發(fā)出同樣的警告。
Despite the challenges, some people here remain guardedly optimistic about the future. The governments on both sides of the border have gotten a grip on the worst of the mangrove cutting, heavily punishing offenders, and they've learned from past natural disasters. By building more cyclone shelters and deploying up to 150,000 volunteers before major storms strike, Bangladeshi officials have drastically cut death tolls. In even the poorest parts of the Sundarbans, villagers have displayed an impressive capacity for adaptation. As salinity surges, they've abandoned rice farming in favor of shrimping.
盡管有這些問題的存在,有些人對未來的態(tài)度還是保持樂觀。兩國政府在情況即將惡化到極點(diǎn)時控制住了局面,他們從過去的自然災(zāi)害中吸取教訓(xùn),嚴(yán)懲違法者。通過建更多的避風(fēng)場所,以及在暴風(fēng)雨來臨前往各地派去超過150000名志愿者,孟加拉國政府大幅度的減少了自然災(zāi)害導(dǎo)致的死亡人數(shù)。甚至在孫德本爾斯最貧困的地區(qū),村民們也展現(xiàn)了令人震撼的適應(yīng)能力。在鹽化侵蝕加劇的同時,他們放棄水稻種植,改而捕蝦為生。