Looking to Nature for Climate Resilient Housing in Coastal Bangladesh

Access to safe and secure housing was an immediate issue after Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar became the world’s largest refugee settlement over a single month in 2017 with the influx of more than 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar.

The refugees built makeshift shelters primarily using fragile materials like bamboo, sticks, and low-grade plastic sheeting.

Temporary shelters constructed from tarpaulin and bamboo in Camp 3. (Photo Credit Alex Robinson, The Rockefeller Foundation)

But the shelters are extremely susceptible to damage from the cyclone-level winds, monsoon rains, and invasive pests typical to Cox’s Bazar, require extensive and expensive maintenance and repair every six months, and generate massive amounts of plastic waste. They also provide insufficient protection against extreme temperature fluctuations which can range from 10°C to 40°C.

All this has exacerbated health problems like respiratory illness, skin disease, and heat exhaustion in an already vulnerable population.

As the acute situation turned into a protracted crisis, the need to rethink the emergency shelter design became clear.

More than 90 million people in Bangladesh are estimated to live in areas that face increasing heat stress, flooding, and riverbank erosion, all of which have cross-cutting impacts on food security, livelihoods, water quality, and shelter. These impacts will induce significant climate displacement; by 2050, Bangladesh could have more than 20 million internal climate migrants, accounting for nearly half of all projected climate migrants in South Asia.

Populations in the southwestern coastal region have been identified by the Bangladeshi government as being some of the most climate vulnerable, and many researchers believe that these populations are already beginning to migrate inland from their ancestral homes. Climate-resilient housing is an urgent challenge.

The Rockefeller Foundation has provided funding to icddr,b through its Climate Exploration Fund to focus on this region for the Jutin pilot’s second phase. Beginning this June, the team will construct 10 houses in the region, each with its own kitchen, toilet, and handwashing station. They will then evaluate the houses in terms of temperature, humidity, and light. They will also measure self-reported health outcomes, including respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, malaria, and mental health.

These results will feed into The Rockefeller Foundation-supported Climate & Health Innovation Hub, which icddr,b recently launched in partnership with the Non-Communicable Disease Control Program of the Directorate General of Health Services in Bangladesh. The Hub is dedicated to pioneering locally led climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on health priorities. It will serve as a central nexus in Bangladesh for cross-sectoral coordination and information-sharing on climate adaptive strategies.

The Jutin housing pilot has already generated significant interest from government agencies and development partners beyond Bangladesh, and Dr. Jahan is optimistic about replicating this solution elsewhere. “If the second phase is successful and generates positive evidence, we foresee a huge possibility to scale up this Jute-based housing model in other climatic zones around the globe, especially in Asia and Africa,” she said. “This will create meaningful opportunities for South-South collaboration in tackling climate change.”