During the annual monsoon, around a third of Bangladesh disappears under water. In the northeast, hundreds of haors (natural dips in the ground created by tectonic activity) are inundated when nearby rivers break their banks, creating a vast six-month-long flood. The region’s one-million-plus inhabitants have adapted by spending half their year living on man-made earth islands and the other half cultivating rice in the fertile soils left behind as the waters retreat

April 2009