After Major Cyclone, Bangladesh creative adaptions to Climate Change
If the country is running out of land, Mohammad Rezwan says it will have to look to the water.
MOHAMMAD REZWAN, Teacher: People have to live on water in some way at the time. And it is the most densely populated country in the world, people they will not have any place to live. It is because of climate change.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: When Rezwan graduated from architecture school eight years ago, he began to use his skills to design a floating community.
Its first building block was a boat to serve both as school bus -- and school.
MOHAMMAD REZWAN: We designed in a way that it has more space and a multi-layered water proof roof on it so that when it rains you still can continue working on it. And there are side windows and the bottom is flat so it can move through the flooded lands.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: His fledgling nonprofit caught the attention of donors including the Gates and Levi Strauss foundations. Today, there are 41 floating, solar-powered classrooms plying the Natore region in northwestern Bangladesh. For 1,200 students, school is no longer interrupted by flooding.
One boat serves as a library. It makes three-hour stops along the river. Its young patrons can study, check out a book or learn to use the internet.
There's also a floating power station. Eighty percent of Bangladesh's villages lack electricity. Rezwan provides families solar lamps, powered by small batteries that people bring in about once a month to be recharged
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