Dhaka, Feb. 29 -- As far back as she can remember, Shahanaz Ali has been running from cyclones. "Moving constantly from one place to another is exhausting," says Ali. "Nowhere feels like home." Her family first fled from their house in 1970, when Bangladesh was devastated by Cyclone Bhola - one of the deadliest cyclones in history.

Up to 500,000 people died, including Ali's grandparents. The largely inadequate response of the ruling Pakistani government towards the cyclone's Bengali victims in what was then East Pakistan triggered Bangladesh's war of independence a year later.

Natural disasters continue to shape political and economic life in Bangladesh. Situated on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta - the world's largest - the small south As...