Floods in Bangladesh
The unusual swelling of water that
overflows the banks of the rivers and submerging a vast area of land is called
flood. It is a natural calamity. It is sometimes called deluge. It is
devastating and horrible when causes a colossal loss to lives and properties.
Bangladesh, being a land of rivers, often falls victims to floods almost every
year.
Bangladesh is prone to flooding due
to being situated on the Ganges Delta and the many distributaries flowing into
the Bay of Bengal. Coastal flooding, combined with the bursting of river banks
is common, and severely affects the landscape and society of Bangladesh. 80% of
Bangladesh is floodplain, and it has an extensive sea coastline, rendering the
nation very much at risk of periodic widespread damage. Whilst more permanent defenses,
strengthened with reinforced concrete, are being built, many embankments are
composed purely of soil and turf and made by local farmers. Flooding normally
occurs during the monsoon season from June to September. The convectional
rainfall of the monsoon is added to by relief rainfall caused by the Himalayas.
Melt water from the Himalayas is also a significant input.
Each year in Bangladesh about 26,000
km2 (around 18% of the country) is flooded, killing over 5,000 people and
destroying more than seven million homes. During severe floods the affected
area may exceed 75% of the country, as was seen in 1998. This volume is 95% of
the total annual inflow. By comparison, only about 187,000 million m3, of stream
flow is generated by rainfall inside the country during the same period. The
floods have caused devastation in Bangladesh throughout history, especially
during the years 1966, 1987, 1988 and 1998. The 2007 South Asian floods also
affected a large portion of Bangladesh.
Floods do immense good to us. They
make our soil alluvial and fertile. As such our soil becomes suitable for
growing more and better crops. They wash away all sorts of rubbishes and purify
the surface of the earth.
In spite of doing good floods often
bring untold miseries to our country by damaging our crops and properties. It
also disrupts the communication network and causes untold miseries of our
people. Thousands of people become homeless, helpless and suffer greatly for
want of shelter, food and many other things.
Famine and pestilence break out in
the wake of floods as there is acute scarcity of food and pure drinking water.
People often drink dirty water as a result of which epidemics break out in the
shape of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery etc. The price of all daily necessaries
goes up.
The floods that took place in 1954,
1961, 1968, 1974, 1985, 1988, 1998, created much havoc. But havoc created by
most devastating flood of 1988 beggars description. It surpassed all the
previous records of losses and distresses. Moreover,
in 1998, over 75% of the total area of the country was flooded, including half
of the capital city Dhaka. It was similar to the catastrophic flood of 1988 in
terms of the extent of the flooding.
Firstly, by building dams and
embankments across the rivers floods may be brought under control. Secondly, by
dredging the river beds from time to time and thereby depending the rivers
occasional flood may be controlled to some extent. It is encouraging to note
that the government of Bangladesh is fully aware of it and has already taken
several measures to control floods in the country.
Ours is an agricultural country. Our
national economy and the prosperity of our people largely depend on
agriculture. So, the government of Bangladesh should take both short-term and
long-term measures to control floods so that they may not cause the damage of
our crops, cattle, houses and properties.
If you think
you are benefited from this , please click at more than 2 adds.
0 Comments