Project
How do you ensure children can still attend school during times of severe flooding?
)
Step 1
Define the Cause
Cause:
Education
Right now in Bangladesh, we can feel the presence of climate change. The water is getting bigger, the rivers are rising.Mohammed Rezwan Founder of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
Step 2
Research & Discover
Background
One-fifth of Bangladesh floods each year. Climate change has dramatically increased the flooding in recent years, and the country is projected to lose 16% of its land by 2050.
During monsoon season many children cannot attend school and oftentimes are forced to drop out. In rural areas, students who need to travel long distances to attend school are also vulnerable to dropping out.
Step 3
Think, Make & Evaluate
Ideation
School-boat inventor Architect Mohammed Rezwan’s idea was to combine a school bus with the schoolhouse and use the traditional wooden boat to create a floating space to bring primary education to the villages. (Natore, 2013). Photo credit: Abir Abdullah/Shidhulai Swanirvar.
Faced with an ever-growing threat of flooding, Architect Mohammed Rezwan decided that, rather than continue to build buildings that would be flooded and underwater in his lifetime, he would instead begin to build floating communities.
Photo credit: Abir Abdullah.
Mohammed used $500 from scholarships and savings to open his non-profit, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. He then designed “classrooms on boats” and worked with local boat builders to build the floating schools, libraries, and healthcare centers using the wooden boat-building heritage of northwestern Bangladesh.
Photo credit: Abir Abdullah.
The boats are made with local materials, including iron and various types of local wood, such as Sal or Shala tree and bamboo. The flat-bottom boats sit low in the water and are built without columns, to allow for wide open spaces.
Photo credit: Abir Abdullah.
Roofs are waterproof and outfitted with solar-panels, allowing the boats to charge electronic equipment as well as lanterns to light the boats. They are built to withstand heavy monsoon rains.
If the children can't go to school for lack of transportation, then the schools should go to them. The idea was to ensure all-year-round education.Mohammed Rezwan Founder of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
Step 4
Outcome & Impact
Results
Lessons underway on a Floating Community Lifeboat. Photo credit: Abir Abdullah/Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha.
Outside of building schools, playgrounds, and healthcare centers, Mohammed Rezwan has continued to design new uses for the floating communities. His non-profit organization Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was awarded a Global Libraries Access to Learning Award in 2005 from The Gates Foundation to help scale up the floating libraries. They later won a U.N. Prize for Inspiring Environmental Action and were honored with the UNDP Equator Prize.
A floating farm measures about 56 feet long and 16 feet wide, including the duck coop, vegetable garden and fish enclosures (Bhangura, 2014). Photo credit: Mohammed Rezwan/Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha.
They now also work with farmers to develop “integrated floating farming methods” to help farmers continue to farm on water after they’ve lost their lands. The floating farms are built on platforms in three-tiers–the bottommost has net enclosures for raising fish, above that is a planting bed made of water hyacinth with a bamboo truss for vegetables, and on the top tier chickens or ducks can be raised.
The floating training center provides instruction to parents on children's rights, women's rights, sustainable farming, and adaptation to climate change (Singra, 2009). Photo credit: Abir Abdullah/Shidhulai Swanirvar.
Floating houses have also been built with kitchens and toilets. They have created floating rainwater harvesting centers which collect rainwater and provide safe drinking water to the floating schools. And during times of severe flooding, the non-profit can provide emergency relief to those in need.