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Sunamganj District

Local Gov

Sunamganj is the deep-haor heartland of Bangladesh, a vast seasonally flooded wetland district where a single boro rice crop and inland fisheries sustain most livelihoods. It is among the poorest tenth of districts, with the largest mapped permanent water of the four and an economy only recently registering rapid nighttime-light growth off a very low base.

Indicators: Meta RWI (HDX); ERA5-Land; MODIS; Sentinel-5P; VIIRS night-lights; GHSL; Hansen v1.11; CHIRPS v2.0. Exposure: GloFAS v2.1, FABDEM, MODIS LST, ACAG PM2.5, WorldPop 2020.

Problems and issues

1. poverty Sunamganj has a mean Relative Wealth Index of about -0.206, ranking 10th-poorest of 64 districts, the poorest of the four Sylhet-division districts and a clear pocket of deep rural deprivation. So what: Concentrated poverty in the haor leaves households with almost no buffer when the single boro harvest fails, driving distress migration and chronic food insecurity. Source: Meta Data for Good Relative Wealth Index (HDX), ~2.4 km grid
2. climate disaster Annual rainfall of about 4,065 mm fills the haors each monsoon, and early pre-monsoon flash floods routinely arrive before the boro harvest, repeatedly wiping out the district's one rice crop, as in 2017 and 2022. So what: With a single-crop, single-season agrarian base, one mistimed flash flood means a year of lost food and income for the whole haor population. Source: CHIRPS v2.0 precipitation (UCSB Climate Hazards Group) via Google Earth Engine
3. water Permanent surface water of about 32.4 sq km is the largest of the four districts, reflecting the extensive haor wetland that floods for months yet is governed by aging submersible crop-protection embankments prone to breach. So what: The protection of the entire harvest hinges on embankment integrity, so weak or late embankment works translate directly into mass crop loss. Source: JRC Global Surface Water (permanent water) via Google Earth Engine
4. economy Nightlight radiance grew about 154%, ranking 17th-fastest of 64 districts, but from a very low rural base, so the rapid relative growth still leaves the haor economy thin and undiversified beyond rice and fisheries. So what: Fast percentage growth off near-darkness can mask how little durable productive infrastructure actually exists across the wetland interior. Source: VIIRS nighttime lights (annual radiance) via Google Earth Engine
5. environment Haor wetland ecology faces pressure from overfishing, dry-season dewatering, and habitat loss even as tree cover (about 332 sq km) and NDVI edge up, threatening the fisheries and migratory-bird systems the local economy depends on. So what: Degrading the haor's fish and biodiversity erodes the second pillar of livelihoods after rice, with no easy substitute. Source: Department of Environment

Probable solutions

• Expand pre-monsoon employment and cash-for-work support plus crop insurance timed to the boro calendar so households are protected when early flash floods hit. Responsible: Department of Disaster Management / Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief · Department of Disaster Management
• Reform submersible embankment construction with audited, on-time pre-monsoon completion and community oversight (PIC-style) to prevent the breaches that destroy the boro crop. Responsible: Bangladesh Water Development Board · Bangladesh Water Development Board
• Diversify livelihoods through duck-fish integrated farming, cold storage, and haor-fisheries co-management to reduce dependence on a single rice harvest. Responsible: Department of Fisheries / Department of Agricultural Extension · policy proposal
• Designate and enforce dry-season fish sanctuaries and water-retention beels under community management to sustain the haor fishery and biodiversity. Responsible: Department of Fisheries / Department of Environment · Department of Fisheries

Upazilas (12)