Flooding in Bangladesh

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Flooding in Bangladesh

• LO
• To explain the causes, effects and solutions

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Flooding in Bangladesh
Today we are going to build a case study of
flooding in Bangladesh.
Starter Where are each of these countries
located?
China India Nepal Bangladesh Pakistan Bhutan
Burma
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Flooding in Bangladesh
Bangladesh also suffers regularly from
substantial flooding caused by monsoon rains and
melting snows from the Himalayas.Source World
Infozone.com
Bangladesh is a delta. The low level of the
delta land means that the country is prone to
flooding. 75 of Bangladesh is at or below just
10 metres in height.
Why does Bangladesh flood? Split answers into
Physical and Human causes.
Freshwater floods occur when a watershed receives
so much water that it cannot drain into the soil
quickly enough to take the water away. Bangladesh
has three mighty rivers, the Ganges, the Jamuna
and the Meghna. Most floods follow heavy rain or
melting snow, frozen ground and already high
river levels. The floods in Bangladesh begin
through a combination of heavy monsoon rains
flooding the rivers and abnormally high tides in
the Bay of Bengal preventing floodwater from
running off the land and into the sea. The
likelihood of flooding can be increased by human
activities too, such as too many trees being cut
down, stripping the land bare of the vital top
soil which slows and drains water. Also, In
built-up areas with a lot of concrete roads and
houses, there are fewer places for water to go
and less soil for water to drain into. So
planners in cities prone to flooding have to
develop ways of channelling water to cope with
potential floods. Source Global Express.org
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Flooding in Bangladesh
Where does the flooding occur? Identify specific
regions that are worst hit.
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Flooding in Bangladesh
What are the effects of the floods? Split answers
into positive and negative.
The deltas of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers
in South Asia flood on a seasonal basis. The
flooding keeps the soil fertile because the
rivers deposit silt which forms fertile soil each
year. Partly because of the flooding, it is one
of the most densely populated areas of the world
with millions of people in Nepal, Northern India
and Bangladesh depending on the rivers and
fertile soils for their livelihoods. Tear Fund UK
Bangladesh FloodsMore than 450 people have died
and more than 30 million people in Bangladesh are
affected by the recent floods. Of the country's
64 districts, 43 are affected by the rising
waters. Around 40 per cent of the county's
capital, Dhaka, is covered in water and
Government figures report more than 150,000 homes
have been destroyed and more than half a million
acres of crops destroyed.Floodwaters place the
population at risk from a range of water-borne
diseases, including diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid
and cholera. Outbreaks of diarrhoea have already
been reported, especially in the capital, where
sewers mix with floodwater and water supplies are
contaminated.Although Bangladesh is used to
floods, this year levels and coverage has been
far worse than normal and the monsoon season has
only just started. World Vision UK
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Flooding in Bangladesh
How have decision makers respond to the flooding?
The Flood Action Plan (FAP) was set up in 1990
supported by several wealthy countries and the
World Bank. Its aim was to reduce the impact of
the floods that occurred annually in Bangladesh.
The FAPs objectives were to set up regional
planning groups to study and monitor local river
processes, followed by the construction of huge
embankments to protect the land, initially from
river flooding. It was intended to construct
coastal embankments to protect from storm surges
brought by cyclones but these have not been
completed. As a result the FAP is not considered
to have been a complete success. Over 3 million
people have been killed by coastal flooding in
the last 30 years. The first findings of the FAP
in 1995 stated that, while the flood protection
scheme was economically desirable for urban
areas, it was not a good idea in rural areas,
which are dependent upon fishing and farming.
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Flooding in Bangladesh
What issues are faced in implementing strategies
in countries like Bangladesh?
Whilst the embankments have been strengthened,
increased in height and extended in many places,
the FAP has come across several problems, such as

• The Bangladeshi Government cannot afford the high
  maintenance costs of the scheme
• The embankments are at risk of erosion from the
  rivers
• River channelisation by FAP embankments has
  increased the risk of flood damage for downstream
  areas
• An estimated 8 million people were forced to move
  due to the FAP. These were people who relied on
  farming and fishing to support themselves.
• Today, smaller, more sustainable projects tend to
  be favoured such as flood embankments to protect
  important urban areas (like Dhaka), improved
  forecasting and early warning systems and the
  building of flood shelters (areas of raised land
  to provide a save haven for people in times of
  flood).
• BBC Bitesize

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Example exam question
Flooding in Bangladesh

• For an area you have studied explain what the
  effects of a natural disaster have been (6)
• You could choose any disaster (San Francisco,
  Nevada del Ruiz, Haiti, flooding in Bangladesh
• Make sure you only give detail related to what
  the question is asking
• Include case study figures
• What impact did development have on the effects?