Floating Schools

In Bangladesh, 20% of the country is covered with floodwaters.  These floods close schools for large portions of the year.  In a typical year dozens, if not hundreds, of schools are destroyed by the floodwaters. A local architect, Mohammed Rezwan, decided, "If the children cannot come to school, I thought the school should go to them. "As reported by the Sundance Institute...

"Rezwan is re-casting rising rivers as channels of communication — and transforming lives along the flood-prone river basins of Bangladesh. Rezwan, an innovative architect and social entrepreneur, is building solar powered floating schools.  Replete with Internet connections, they’ve become mobile hubs for hundreds of communities facing the not-so-easy challenge of water taking their land and destroying their livelihoods. Can this soft-spoken inventor overcome both flooding and global indifference? With a concept that is elegant and home-grown, Rezwan is helping his country adapt to the new climate reality — and cultivating the next generation of problem solvers.  While some still argue the reality of global warming as a man-made phenomenon, the documentary, Easy Like Water, shows the human face of climate disaster and highlights one simple, affordable adaptation that is changing lives by building a future that floats."

 

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