Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers, Bangladesh, 1998:

Causes

Bangladesh is prone to flooding because of a number of reasons. These are mainly physical, however humans do play a part in the flooding as well .Most of Bangladesh is a flood plain or a delta. The country itself is at the mouth of the two great rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Approximately 70% of the country is less than 1m above sea level, meaning that the land is very moist, so much so that rivers, lakes and swamps cover 10% of the land. The rivers flowing across Bangladesh are also quite fast flowing. There are three main reasons for this: tropical cyclones bring heavy rain and cause coastal flooding; snowmelt from the Himalayas in late Spring increases the summer discharges; and there are heavy

monsoon rains especially over the Himalayas, the uplands in Assam and the Central Indian Plateau. The heavy monsoon rains were the major cause of flooding in 1998.Human causes of the floods are very much debatable amongst scientists. Deforestation in Nepal and Tibet has made the flooding worse. Forests play a very important role in the hydrological cycle they absorb the water from the ground in upland areas; they bind the soil particles and increase interception. Vegetation slows the journey of water to the river, thus reducing the flood risk. The Farraka Dam in India is blamed for the decrease in depth of the river channel of the Hooghly River, a tributary of the Ganges. In the dry season the dam reduces the discharge of the river, encouraging sedimentation on the riverbed, therefore the risk of flooding is increased. The floods have also been blamed on global warming. Some scientists

think the fact that the sea levels are higher means the amount of surface water on the flood plain is increased because of slower infiltration. The theory also explains the high rainfall in the Himalayas in 1998 to the increased global temperature. It is also argued that the building and urbanisation in Bangladesh has worsened the floods. Development schemes of constructing new roads and buildings have meant that water cannot drain from the land as quick as it should.

Effects Over 57% of the land area of Bangladesh was flooded, causing many

impacts Bangladesh and the surrounding area, more maybe than if the floods had occurred in a MEDC. The floods caused landslides and houses to collapse leaving around 40 million people homeless. Road communication and telecommunications networks broke down completely for nearly a week, making aid very difficult. The floods also led to the deaths of more than 1000 people. The flood defences of the

region were also tested. About 100 feet of Gumati dam was eroded at Jahapur inundating vast areas with polluted water. An embankment protecting Sandwip, a large coastal island was breached marooning 1,200 families Many people faced hunger and disease caused by filthy water and rotten food. There was a crisis of drinking water as tube-wells went under floodwater. Diseases such as diarrhoea were rife within the country and medical aid was The flooding destroyed about 2.3 million tons of rice. Farmland was eroded away and small villages were covered with sand and silt. Outside of Bangladesh the flood left millions of people in the eastern Indian State of Assam facing acute food shortages and disease. The floods submerged 5,000 villages in the region.

Responses The government of Bangladesh was quick to respond to the problems in the country. The administration allocated five tons of rice, 11 tins of biscuits and TK20, 000 for the flood victims. The government also organised the Civil Surgeon office to form a medical team for the flood victims. The Police force was drafted into rescuing the affected people. The Army was also drafted in certain areas were the situation deteriorated considerably. Responses by the people to the floods were to take shelter on the Brahmaputra embankment and in different schools and colleges. However, there were some problems with this, some 23 to 24 cracks were found in the embankment. Foreign embassies in Bangladesh were drawing up plans yesterday to evacuate women and children from the flooded capital Dhaka, as residents and soldiers struggled to save a vital embankment around the city that threatened to collapse under the force of four rivers. Troops, policemen and civil engineers worked through the night, plugging more than 100 breaches with sandbags in the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra dyke that protects more than a million residents on the fringes of the capital, two-thirds of which was under water since the previous July. The Bangladeshi government asked for £555 million in foreign aid to repair the damage. However, many people felt this was too little too late. The government fought back against the claims that it had been slow to react in areas by saying the communications links were down. Governments across the world gave aid to Bangladesh. The UK gave steel bridge materials and 100,000 million tonnes of wheat. The Canadian government gave 12,500 million tonnes of wheat and money for medicines, water tablets, house repair, sanitation, and rehabilitation of farming and fishing. The Egyptian government gave money for medicines and finally the Saudi Arabian government sent two cargo planes with food, medicines, blankets and tents. The Disaster Forum provided boats to rescue people, medicine to treat and prevent illness and a clean supply of drinking water by digging and repairing wells. Medicins Sans Frontieres used six mobile teams in boats to travel around an area where people were living in the water. The Disaster Forum also set up medical centres distributed fodder for livestock, food, plastic sheeting and water purification tablets. Finally and most importantly they planned a rehabilitation programme to repair and construct housing and sanitation.

See also:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/157254.stmhttp://www.cs.albany.edu/%7Eamit/BanglaFloods.txthttp://www.cs.albany.edu/%7Eamit/ganges.htmlhttp://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/tiempo/issue08/bangla.htmhttp://geobytesgcse.blogspot.com/2006/12/flooding-in-ledc-1998-floods-in.html