Welcome to the Bangladesh Delta

1
Welcome to the Bangladesh Delta. What do you
think about your new holiday destination?
Why did I build my house here? Have I got Any
insurance?
Oh my crops Are ruined!
2
Read the article, on the 2003 floods What are
the risks of living here? Try to list 5
Would you like to change places with me?
Most of Bangladesh lies less than 10 metres above
sea level. The DELTA and the FLOODPLAIN of the
Ganges and Brahmaputra cover 97,000 square miles.
Over 90 million people live within this area.
Floods in 1987 covered 40 of Bangladesh and in
1988 they covered 62.
3
Look at the next 10 slides which show images of
life on the Bangladesh Delta. Some images show
ways people use the river and others show how
they cope with/manage the river
Put the slide Number in the Appropriate Column
of Your Table.
Using the river Coping with the river



4
1
5
2
6
3
7
4
8
5
9
6
10
7
11
8
12
9
13
10
14
Look at the 10 slides again. Match the words
with the most appropriate slides.

• living
• devastation
• shelter
• transport
• farming
• washing
• communication

Some words might go with more than one slide

• fishing
• harvesting
• flooding
• drought
• salinisation
• water source/irrigation

15
You have seen the issues and the ways people use
this river. What do you think the local people
think of their river?

• Oh, my river
• Of unfathomed water,
• I am floating in you for ever
• Your tidal bore
• Has swept away my shore.
• On a shoal I try
• To settle in vain
• I am swept away again.
• A broken homestead
• May be rebuilt again
• A broken heart
• Shall never regain.

• The heart that ebbs out
• Seldom flows in again.
• When the river erodes,
• It strikes one shore
• When the heart breaks,
• It shatters all the cores.

• What does this poem mean?
• Identify the river language eg. erodes.
• How difficult is the river to control?

16
Now write your own poem

• Try to use language from last lesson about the
  Delta
• sediment, silt, floodwaters, brackish, turbulent,
  tidal, estuarine, deposition, old age
• Include how people use the river and manage the
  river remember the images and your list of
  words.
• living, devastation, shelter, transport, farming,
• washing, communication, harvesting, flooding,
• drought, salinisation, fishing, water source,
  irrigation

BE PREPARED TO SHARE YOUR POEM.