BANGLADESH FLOOD

BANGLADESH FLOOD

1. 2004

2. LEDC

3. PHYSICAL FACTORS

   • CLIMATIC
     • Heavy monsoon rain in summer - annual total in Dhaka is high (almost 2000m)
     • Tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal - heavy rain and storm waves in late summer
     • Snow melts in the Himalayas in summer - river Ganges floods
   • TOPOGRAPHIC
     • Most of the country is on a huge floodplain and delta of the River Ganges and Brahmaputra
     • 70% of the total area is less than 1m above sea level
     • Rivers, lakes and swamps cover 10% of the land area
     • Deep, renewed silt soils are fertile

4. HUMAN FACTORS

   • Areas of forest removed - provide fuel, timber and grazing land. Nepal - 50% of forest cover cut down since 1950s
   • Forest reduce risk of flooding - raise river levels - absorb water from the ground - bind soil parties - reduce impact of rain droplets on the surface - soil is deposited int the river channels, causing river beds to rise and reducing capacity
   • Brahmaputra riverbed is rising by 5cm each year
   • Farakka dam - increased risk of flooding - ground levels needs to be level with river bed - causes silt to be built up
   • Floods becoming more frequent - interval use to be between 10 and 16 years - 2004 flood only came 7 years after last major disaster in 1998 - increased human activity making the events more frequent

5. IMPACTS

   • SHORT TERM
     • SOCIAL
       • 800 killed
       • Roads, bridges, railway lines and infrastructure destroyed
     • ENVIRONMENTAL
       • Severe riverbank erosion and soil erosion on agricultural land
   • LONG TERM
     • ENVIRONMENTAL
       • More than 50% of country flooded
     • SOCIAL
       • 1 million children suffered from malnutrition in 2005
       • 36 million homeless
       • 2004 harvest destroyed - reliant on emergency food aid throughout 2004
       • Contamination of water supplies
       • Spread of disease - cholera and typhoid
       • 10-25 million people migrated to Dhaka and Chittagong - majority were poor residents who lived on coast - land lost - erosion
     • ECONOMIC
       • 800,000 hectares of agricultural land flooded
       • $2.2 billion rebuilding costs (4% of GSP)

6. RESPONSE

   • SHORT TERM
     • Heavy reliance on emergency aid (food, water, medicines)
     • International organisations - United Nations, rich countries and NGOs - gave £15.7 million in emergency aid
     • Medical treatment centres - distribute water purification tablets - provide help with repairing houses and restarting economic activities such as farming&fishing
     • Government of Bangladesh implemented a 2 year programme caked the 'Vulnerable Group Feeding Programme' - 30k of wheat given out monthly and 150 hours of training in transferable skills and education are given over a 2 year period
     • Charity 'Islamic Relief' helped with rebuilding houses, communities and rehabilitation
   • LONG TERM
     • 3500km of coastal and river embankments
     • Seven large damns - partly to stop water from reaching the land and partly to control water
     • World bank flood action plan
     • 15 storage reservoirs
     • Dhaka Integrated Flood Protection Project
       • Cluster villages (raised by 2m) and raised homesteads (individual homes raised by 2m on earth banks)
       • Flood shelter: about 2ha of raised land where people can bring livestock. Each shelter has space for over 100 families and includes a toilet