Why Bangladesh is running out of options in the face of extreme weather

Shahanaz Ali outside her house, which has been illegally built by the Kirtankhola River. Slum dwellers are some of the most vulnerable to climate disasters and their flimsy homes often get washed away during floods. Photograph: Farzana Hossen

As far back as she can remember, Shahanaz Ali has been running from cyclones. “Moving constantly from one place to another is exhausting,” says Ali. “Nowhere feels like home.” Her family first fled from their house in 1970, when Bangladesh was devastated by Cyclone Bhola – one of the deadliest cyclones in history.

Up to 500,000 people died, including Ali’s grandparents. The largely inadequate response of the ruling Pakistani government towards the cyclone’s Bengali victims in what was then East Pakistan triggered Bangladesh’s war of independence a year later.