Bangladesh tea workers struggle as heat and drought scorch fields
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Climate change impacts from rising temperatures to lack of rain hit Bangladeshi tea harvest as pickers worry about pay and health
- Soaring temperatures, drought slash Bangladesh tea harvest
- Tea pickers stressed in normally mild, rainy region
- Heat hits local incomes as tourists stay away
Phul Kumari has picked tea in northeastern Bangladesh for three decades, but the 45-year-old says she has never experienced heat and drought like that during this harvest season.
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Sreemangal, Bangladesh's tea capital, traditionally has the highest rainfall in the country and temperatures that, while close to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit)in the summer, feel milder because of the cooling rain.
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Around the world, worsening heatwaves fuelled by climate change are proving increasingly costly for businesses and their workers, raising questions about how economies and the people who depend on them will cope, especially as continued fossil fuel use further heats the planet.
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High temperatures wreak havoc on workers and harvest
Perhaps hardest hit by the worsening drought and heat, however, are the legions of tea workers in the normally mild region, which was first planted to tea gardens during British colonial rule.
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