How can ducks provide a flood barrier?
When a devastating flood hit Sunita’s village in Bangladesh in 2004, she was left with no way of providing for herself and her family. The whole village was underwater and all her livestock gone. But hope came in an unusual form: Sunita was helped to set up a duck hatchery. Ducks produce eggs, which provide nutrition and can be sold for extra income – and ducklings, which can be sold at market. With this money, Sunita protected herself from future floods by strengthening her house with bamboo poles, and building a sturdy fence round it. She also made a high, secure platform for her ducks, so that they and their ducklings don’t swim off when the floods come again. Sunita and her family are used to coping with annual flooding – it’s happened there for thousands of years. But Sunita worries that things are changing: “The floods have been getting worse bit by bit since I was a child. Each year the temperature seems to be increasing, too. But I can’t tell why.” CHRISTIAN AID’s local partner
