Rice, river and canal- these three compose the abundance of agricultural and livelihood diversity. All the areas are ornamented with diverse features. Sometimes, the adornment represents the ancient look of Bengal, and many a times, we see miseries of thousands of people, behind the curtain. The sad stories are not stored from a day or months…it goes beyond time. For many years, it seems, only despairs are being compiled at this part of the civilization.

This is a video on traditional and almost lost, water lilies of Bangladesh.

The village’s name is Uttor Shatla. It’s 60 KMs from Barisal Sadar and a village in Ujirpur upazila in Bangladesh. Where the village is intertwined with river and canals, the village of Uttor Shatla Beel takes root. Among 4,977 hectares of arable land, large portion of it fall in the beel. The beel is surrounded by part of Bagda union and Khajura.

Local community never received any message of river-based livelihood system towards development. That’s why farming means to live on the water lily for around six to seven months a year.

Farmers take their little boats to fetch water lily and selling those at the market is the only means of livelihood.