Bangladesh Floods

CAUSES
1. PHYSICAL
  1. most of the country is the huge flood plain & delta of the river Ganges & Brahmaputra
  2. 70 per cent of the total area is less than 1 metre above sea level
  3. rivers, lakes and swamps are over 10 per cent of land area.
  4. Heavy monsoon rain falls in summer annual total in Dhaka is high (almost 2000)
  5. Tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal bring heavy rain & storm waves in late summer.
  6. snow melts in the Himalayas in summer and the river Ganges floods
2. HUMAN
  1. Removal of vast areas of forest to provide fuel
    1. increased soil erosion
      1. soil deposited in th river, reducing the capacity of th river rising by 5cm a year.
EFFECTS
1. IMMEDIATE
  1. social
    1. 760 people killed
    2. 3o million homeless
    3. 35 million effected
  2. Economic
    1. Roads & bridges destroyed
    2. Rice growing & fish farming disrupted
  3. Enviromental
    1. covered half of Bangladesh
2. LONG TERM
  1. social
    1. more than 1 million children suffered from maintuition & disease in the following months
  2. Economic
    1. re-buliding of roads industry cost $2-3 billion
    2. Emergency flood aid was needed until the following years harvest
  3. Enviromental
    1. Bank & soil erosion water contamination
FLOOD MANAGEMENT
1. Prime concern is the health, survival & suffering of the people
2. UN provided food, drinking water, medicines, plastic sheets, boats &other international organisations
3. In July 1987
  1. world bank prepared an action plan for flood control
    1. 3500 kilometres of coastal & river embankments
    2. 7 large dams
      1. stop water reaching the land & provide up to 15 flood water storages
  2. additional financial aid was organised for a period of 5 years
4. future, flood resistant designs should be used in all social & economic infrastructure projects

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Bangladesh Floods

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	Created by Leilia Paske about 8 years ago