Bangladesh floods 2004

Bangladesh floods 2004

1. Causes

   • Human
     • Trees have been cleared for farmland
     • Building of new towns in China has destroyed lots of forest
     • Many of the existing flood defences don't work
   • Physical
     • 70% of Bangladesh is less than 1m below sea level
     • There were heavy monsoon rains
     • The amount of monsoon rain increases each year
     • There was lots of melting snow from the Himalayas added to rivers

2. Short term response

   • Airport flooded- foreign aid couldn't get in
   • UN appeal reached $74 million
   • Wateraid posters showed danger of drinking dirty water
   • Food, medicines and blankets were given to survivors
   • Relief and aid couldn't be distributed, rail and roads damaged

3. Long term response

   • Economic cost was $2.2bn
   • The world bank gave a 5yr loan to help with repairs
   • Locals rebuilt houses on 2m stilts
   • 70,000 children were helped by school boats
   • Bangladeshi villagers could receive texts about severe weather warnings in 2009

4. Primary effects

   • 6,500 bridges destroyed
   • 800 people killed
   • 80% of country was under 1m of water
   • Some areas underwater for 2 months
   • 500,000 cattle killed
   • 11,000km of roads were damaged

5. Secondary effects

   • Shipping from main port was disrupted
   • 36 million made homeless
   • 1/4 million people had dirty water
   • 1/4 million had diarrhoea
   • Rice growing and fish farming disrupted
   • Over 400 factories closed

6. Case study detail

   • They were the worst floods this century