Flooding in Bangladesh

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Flooding in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a low lying country and almost all of Bangladesh lies on

the largest delta in the world. It is situated between the Himalayas

and the Indian Ocean with a vast river basin made up of the Ganges,

the Brahamaputra, the Meghna and their tributaries. It also has the

highest population density in the world with 847 inhabitants per

square kilometer.

Bangladesh is one of the world's least developed countries and prone

to natural disasters, such as cyclones, floods and droughts. Half of

it is less than five meters above sea level. Therefore any change in

the earth’s temperature that causes the level of the oceans to rise

would seriously affect the flooding of the delta area of Bangladesh.

A fifth to a third of the country is annually flooded by the river

Ganges and there are many factors both human and physical which

encourage the river Ganges and Brahmaputra to overflow its river

banks. The obvious physical cause of flooding in Bangladesh is that

about 90% of the land is below sea level, therefore any changes in the

sea level would cause serious problems for Bangladesh.

Another physical cause includes the snow melting in the Himalayas,

caused by global warming. The Himalayas are one of the few places in

the world that retain permanent glaciers. In the warmer summer season

however glacial ice goes through a period of melting. The source of

the Brahmaputra starts in the Himalayas and an increase in

melted-water flowing through its drainage basin will increase channel

flow, saturate soils and cause massive overland flow – a major cause

of flooding.

Another major cause is the cyclonic storms t...

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...urther problems some where

else. People in Bangladesh aren’t educated enough to build any

appropriate flood protection and to maintain them.

The problem concerning Bangladesh is that most of the land is only a

few feed above water and very unstable. No amount of river control can

change this. To alleviate the impact of flooding Bangladesh’s only

choice has to be severe population controls to reduce the density of

people on this land and also to encourage a movement away from the

lowest lying areas.

It is also believed that Bangladesh will each year run a three-times

higher risk of suffering an exceptionally wet monsoon compared with

the probability today, thus it is also expected that parts of

Bangladesh face the risk of more frequent, major floods in the latter

half of this century because of global warming.

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