In what is being billed the world’s largest climate refugee housing scheme, 20 new housing blocks opened last Thursday and will house 650 families in the initial phase, with more under construction. 

Many of the new residents are from the Bay of Bengal island of Kutubdia, which is now 40% underwater. One of the first recipients was Jobadia Begum, who lost several family members during the country’s devastating 1991 cyclone that destroyed much of the island and killed 138,000 people. 

Many of those displaced in that cyclone have since been living in a slum housing 40,000 outside of Cox’s Bazar airport, which is also vulnerable to flooding during high tide. (AFP)