Bangladesh why does it flood

Anthropogenic activities in the form of construction roads without sufficient drainage capacity through them, road alignments transverse to the main drainage paths, blocked drainage channels due to siltation, cross-dams or fishing activities, and inadequately sized drainage sluices are increasing urban floods.

Recently, flood events are becoming more severe because of the river-bed siltation, river encroachment, and inadequate drainage capacity. Because of urbanization, people are filling up the wetlands ponds, beels which previously functioned as a reservoir for the rainwater in the floodplain. People throw a large volume of solid wastes in the water bodies, and so, the water carrying capacity of the rivers and lakes is decreasing.

These are leading to flooding in the localities causing enormous distress to human life. With the increase of population, more and more people are settling in flood-prone areas, leaving them vulnerable. An analysis conducted with population census data revealed that some Flood-prone zones are the worst off among different disaster-prone areas in terms of food shortages, the incidence of extremely poor, insufficient income, illiteracy, and a high concentration of wage labourers.

Proper management of floods in a country like Bangladesh is a crying need, and the integration of all stakeholders in the management process can achieve a fruitful result. Email: [email protected]. Home Opinion Op-Ed. Ashik Iqbal. Dhaka Tribune. In Bangladesh, proper flood management has become a crying need. Leave a Comment. Excessive rainfall seriously affected Rajshahi town. Crop was partially destroyed. But no general distress resulted.

Crops, cattle and valuable properties were damaged. This was the highest flood on record in the district. Cholera broke out in an epidemic form. Meghna overflowed by about 6. Galachipa and Bauphal were damaged seriously. A total of about , people died. Cholera broke out immediately after flood. Crops and valuable properties were damaged. This flood was exceptional in severity in mymensingh.

The distress caused on this occasion is probably the nearest parallel to that which resulted from the flooding of the Tista in , when the change in the course of Brahmaputra began. On August 1 flood peak of the jamuna river at Sirajganj was The flood level of the buriganga exceeded the highest level of Many people were affected and crops and valuable properties were damaged. The flood level was almost the highest in the history of Sylhet district too.

A storm on the morning of 12 June made the situation grave. On September 15 Dhaka city became stagnant due to continuous rainfall for 52 hours, which resulted in pools of water 1. Crops and valuable property were damaged. People and cattle were severely affected and more than , houses were destroyed. Excessive rainfall both inside and outside of the country was the main cause of the flood. The seriously affected regions were on the western side of the Brahmaputra, the area below the confluence of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, considerable areas north of Khulna and finally some areas adjacent to the Meghalaya hills.

Rainfall together with synchronisation of very high flows of all the three major rivers of the country in only three days aggravated the flood.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, was severely affected. Our climate models indeed project more regional wetting as we progress through the 21st century, suggesting that flood hazards will also increase. Together, the tree ring reconstruction and projections of higher discharge relative to those seen in the instrumental period lead to the conclusion that we may be underestimating the frequency of high-discharge events and, consequently, potential flooding in the Brahmaputra River watershed.

Even with flood hazards amplified by climate change and other factors, effective policies to reduce exposure and vulnerability can mitigate negative effects of flooding.

A stronger monsoon contributes only one component to increased flood risks for people throughout the region. Exposure and vulnerability are also influenced by regional urbanization, land use, and population density, and they correlate with various socioeconomic factors. Even with flood hazards amplified by climate change and other factors, effective policies to reduce exposure and vulnerability can mitigate negative effects of flooding, which is especially vital in severe events.

Accurate early-warning forecasts from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department and the India Meteorological Department can help people proactively prepare for flood events. Improved regional cooperation and information sharing among the countries within the river basin Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal could enhance these forecasts. These nations must also continue to monitor and reassess flood mitigation structures such as embankments and polders low-lying regions reclaimed from or adjacent to a river and protected by dikes to ensure that they can withstand floods today and in the future and that they do not inadvertently shift flood risks to other locations.

It is also important, however, to understand variability in long-term flood hazards because this information informs development of a variety of mitigation and adaptation measures, including flood protection structures and insurance.

Our monsoon seasonal streamflow reconstruction helps extend the short instrumental record to better understand this variability in the Brahmaputra system and provide a more accurate view of long-term hazards and risks. Combined with climate model projections for the 21st century, this work demonstrates that both natural variability and greenhouse warming will likely contribute to a greater likelihood of high-discharge events and risk of flooding.

Therefore, we recommend that the basis considered for policy decisions and mitigation scenarios should not be limited to floods similar to those observed in recent decades. Severe and recurrent high-discharge events likely occurred in the past and are expected to occur again under climate change, and these events must factor into future plans.

Dewan, A. Mahalanobis, P. Nguyen, H. Causes of flooding in Bangladesh:. Tectonic uplift of the Himalayas means that erosion rates of sediment increase as the rivers have more potential for erosion. This mass of sediment is dumped in Bangladesh choking the river channels making them more inefficient and reducing hydraulic radius. Sediment is dumped and flooding can occur. Monsoon rainfall — some parts of the Ganges basin receive mm of rainfall in a day during the monsoon.

Deforestation of the Himalaya — reducing interception rates which means shorter lag time and higher peak discharges. Three massive rivers converge in Bangladesh — the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna — massively swells discharges. Cyclones from the Bay of Bengal cause and contribute to coastal flooding. Snow melt affects the rivers too, as ice and snow melting from glaciers and mountain peaks in the Himalaya works its way into rivers.

The Himalaya also forces relief or orographic rainfall, increasing rainfall totals and then river levels further. Death — over , people died in a cyclone and flood in the s. Loss of agricultural land — a major problem in a country with high natural increase.