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Villagers Suffer from Global Warming in Bangladesh

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As the world's attention turns to Copenhagen, we see how people living in some parts of the world deal with the everyday effects of unpredictable weather.

Some six months after Cylcone Aila ravaged their villages, many people in Bangladesh's western Satkhira district are still living in makeshift camps under the constant threat of flooding.

Aila left 147 people dead in its wake in Bangladesh alone, according to the country's Food and Disaster Management Ministry, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Residents of the village of Padmapukur now live in tents and huts on a strip of highland surrounded by the submerged remains of their former homes.

Abdul Bari, Displaced Person, said, "During the Cyclone Aila, the tidal surge destroyed everything, the house, the trees and even washed away all my cattle. All that is left is a strip of land. So we have had to live here on this embankment ever since."

With no end in sight to their miserable conditions, the villagers are trying to establish some sense of normalcy.

Here, a school teacher is holding classes in the street.

In this and similar difficult situations, experts in Bangladesh worry that their voices will not be heard this week at Copenhagen.

And, even if they are heard, hearing and acting are still two different things.

(CCTV December 8, 2009)

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