Flood, geography and expectation
"This is the worst flood on record"
"This is the coldest winter on record”
"The hottest decade in recorded history" Every month it seems there is some new natural disaster to contend with. These natural events are thought to be the consequence of global warming. If global warming is occurring, these natural disasters are only minor compared to the consequence of changing agricultural patterns which could lead to widespread famine, and melting ice caps and glaciers, which could raise the sea level and cause flooding. Bangladesh is a tropical delta with the southern coastline touching the Bay of Bengal and the mighty Himalayas stretched on the north. Due to such geomorphological formation it is a country that has been intrinsically associated with natural disasters. Its geographic vulnerability lies in the fact that it is an exceedingly flat, low-lying, alluvial plain covered by over 230 rivers and rivulets with approximately 580 kilometers of exposed coastline. As a result of its geography, Bangladesh frequently suffers from devastating flood. In Bangladesh floods are recurrent; some normal and annual flooding is important to the people and economy. However severe floods of high magnitude can have adverse impact on the economy and even cause loss of life. With increase in population, rapid urbanization, growth of infrastructure, other economic development and poor maintenance flood risks have been increasing. In fact catastrophic floods can have major adverse consequence on the long term development of the country. Many doubt if it is possible to develop a modern economy without properly managing the disaster risks posed by flood. Bangladesh has experienced more than a dozen devastating floods since independence not to speak of the similar or more acute earlier ones. During each flood scores of people have been killed and damages to crops, enterprises and infrastructures occurred in billions of US dollars, severely disrupting the economy and reducing potential GDP by a few percentage points. Flooding in Bangladesh is a recurrent phenomenon and normally it hits our country from July to September each year. Right this moment our country is passing through that crucial and vulnerable time. Mentionable that about 60 percent of our country is flood prone, while about 20-25 percent of land area is inundated during monsoon in a normal year. Flood prone areas can be divided into three major parts: North and Eastern part
Central and South Central part and
Southern part Northern part covers the area of old Himalayan piedmont plan area to Barind tract including a large part of flood plain land. In this belt Sirajganj, Pabna, Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi and Natore are the most vulnerable districts. Due to the proximity to Jamuna river Sirajganj, Bogra, Kurigram and Gaibandha constitute the most risk zone. The large inland depression, commonly known as Haor basin, is located in the north eastern part of Bangladesh. During the monsoon, the basin receives huge discharges of a large numbers of rivers flowing down from the hills of Assam and Meghalaya and takes the form of a vast inland sea with only the villages and some old levees remaining above the normal flood level. Three districts of the haor area are the most flood prone -- Sylhet, Sunamganj and Habiganj. A huge number of people suffer from food, shelter, safe drinking water crisis and sanitation problem during flood. Central and south central part covers the area of active Jamuna flood plain, north Mymensingh piedmont, high parts of old Brahmaputra floodplain, north Mymensingh piedmont basin, lower parts of old Brahmaputra, north and south Dhaleswari river, southwest part of Jamuna, part of old Brahmaputra, old Ganges, active Ganges flood plain, Arial beel, Modhupur tract and its Northern hills. The main vulnerable districts are Dhaka, Manikganj, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Tangail, Netrakona, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Munsiganj, Rajbari, Faridpur, Madaripur, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Narsingdhi and Shariatpur. Of these Manikganj, Jamalpur, Tangail, Netrakona, Faridpur and Madaripur happen to be the most affected. Southern part covers the area of active Ganges flood plain, Ganges-Kobadak project area, Khulna and Chittagong coastal plain and off-shore islands, low and high part of Meghna estuarine floodplain and Comilla basin. In this belt the most affected districts are Magura, Jhenidah, Khulna, Comilla, Feni, Noakhali, Chandpur and Brahmanbaria. People in these regions face specific problems that greatly hamper their capacity to respond to natural disaster like flood. These are -- no emergency flood forecast system; severe lack of awareness about the negative consequence of flood; lack of an information system to coordinate a unified response to the flood; lack of available resources to meet both emergency and long term needs; lack of available rescue boats and other materials; limited number of beneficiaries are selected; lack of temporary livelihood shelter; inadequate number of water purifying tablet or saline and alum; inadequate management effort in the case of pregnant women, the disabled, aged or widow. For mitigating the flood related damages and sufferings in the affected areas some strategies can be followed, viz, constructing or reconstructing embankments immediately, setting up human and cattle shelters, community based clinics and also taking initiative for embankment friendly large scale tree plantation, setting up tubewells and sanitary latrines on the high land, conducting disaster related awareness programmes, encouraging peasant for eco-friend paddy cultivation, providing boats to ease movement of affected people, distributing hurricane lantern and gaslight instead of candle and fire box. Side by side we have to focus seriously on the community based preparedness programme for reducing damages.
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