How Bangladesh is affected by flooding

Flooding is a huge problem for the people in Bangladesh and the problems continue to have negative and positive effects on the people, property and land/environment. The negatives of flooding; There are many different types of floods that Bangladesh suffers from and these are; flash floods; where there is an extreme amount of rainfall effecting both upland areas and over time low land areas.

This type of flood has a huge affect on property as it can wash it away completely destroying it and also flooding crops and killing them, this type of flooding will also deposit lots of sediment so the river bed will rise making the river easier to flood. River floods are where high amounts of rain and melted snow from the Himalayas completely flood the river and also the floodplain, the water can not be contained so flows over lands which is usually not protected, this again damages crops by flooding them and also ruining the land for future use as farm land.

This type of flooding will also damage or even destroy property and in extreme cases entire settlements which in turn will also kill people if they do not evacuate quick enough. Rainwater floods are where there are again extreme amounts of rainfall and there is too much surface water and land is flooded. This can kill cattle, people and destroy farmland and crops which people need for their livelihoods. For example of crop destruction, in 1987 and 1988 rice production on a country scale was largely disrupted due to extreme floods.

Even if engineering is successful and floods are controlled there is the negative effects that the country gets further into debt and a lot of the flood controls do not fit in with the natural environment so is an eye sore. Methods of flood control also effect farming in certain areas as they block irrigation of water so many farmers are complaining as they are not getting the water needed to grow crops for their livelihood.

The worst effected areas of flooding are the coast as many people live here and this is where flooding is most extensive, many people are killed damage to property and farm land is huge so this disrupts the local economy. In the floods of 1991 flooding was that hard that waves were 7 metres high and this brought wind speeds of 225 km/h. people had to climb trees to evade the floods but over 150 000 people were drowned and 500 000 cattle were lost along with vast damage to settlements, electricity, roads and fishing.

Deforestation is another big factor that is negative as this destroys trees that are vital for the world and also does not allow interception to occur so the snow melting from the Himalayas is coming directly to Bangladesh with nothing sopping it. As there is little knowledge and little communication available people can not prepare and are defenceless. With the vast amounts of chemicals and diseases in the Ganges, flooding just spreads this all around the country contaminating drinking water and brings huge problems that need huge amount of medical care so calls for the worlds charities to help.

You can read also Waves

There are very little positive effects of flooding as floods bring so much destruction. The positives though are; due to vast amounts of deposition the silt that is deposited is high in fertility so ‘repairs’ the soil so can be used in the future making it good for crops to grow in. also the vast amounts of water, when controlled can be irrigated for the crops rice and jute which require a large amount of water to grow.

This in turn helps re – boost the local economy and gets the farmers back to their usual livelihood. Finally in cases of extreme flooding where the world is made aware, it can show the kindness of countries by the help they donate and the medical care made available to help restore the country to normal. Although there will always be social, economic, and humane problems with flooding the key is for the country to recover as quick as possible with the least effects and damage done to the country and its people.