The arid Barind region was transformed by aquifer wells but now the water system is collapsing under the pressure of the climate crisis and decades of extraction The arid Barind region was transformed by aquifer wells but now the water system is collapsing under the pressure of the climate crisis and decades of extraction I n the parched fields of north-west Bangladesh , where the earth hardens into cracked red clay beneath an unforgiving sun, farmers in the Barind region say they are watching