The Revitalist

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Due to climate change, much of Bangladesh’s minimal land (144,000 sq km) is rapidly returning to the sea with projections of 1/5 diminished land area by 2050. The solution for the nation's occupants? Go with the flow.

Mohammed Rezwan, a native of Bangladesh and a trained architect, proposed utilizing boats for schools, health facilities, libraries, and agricultural training in a country where land, even where available, is not always stable. He then formed an NGO that builds boats for these purposes. Now, even schools continue through monsoons as students board boats rather than waiting for floodwaters to recede before they can travel to the school. For a country that oscillates between land and water, the concept of a water village provides an innovative and attractive solution.

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The villages would also be sustainable. Equipped with solar panels, each community boat provides for its own energy needs and also charges inexpensive solar lamps for houseboats. These lamps, also developed by the NGO which Rezwan runs, are given to top students at the school and made available to others for $7.30 US dollars. Though students would be able to charge their lamps at the school for no charge, the rest of the community would pay $.60 US each a month to charge their lamps on the community boats.

A village on water proposes an interesting approach to planning in overcrowded areas. Rather than creating land through fill (which would not be possible in Bangladesh), ignore the confines of land and simply create a floating village on the water.