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Floodwaters Rising
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In Bangladesh, flood-wary peasants make a verbal distinction between a routine monsoon (borsha) and a fullscale flood (bonnya). That’s because each year, 22% or more of the country’s land area is covered by water. Indeed, the country’s farmers are used to floods.
Problems arise when the annual event overwhelms expectations, as it did in July- August 2004. The waters have been receding, but those affected face months of food shortages and danger of disease and need sustained short-term aid.
Longer-term support must focus on more innovative programs to improve flood preparedness.
The August floods covered about 38% of the country, killed some 800 people, and directly affected 34 million out of the country’s 140 million people.
As waters peaked, normal life and businesses were crippled as boats replaced cars, and millions fled for shelters, or simply climbed upon their rooftops in an effort to protect their belongings.
FINDING SAFETY A family flees the flood
As the waters recede, the postflood period brings perhaps the greater danger. Destroyed crops and still-flooded lands have left many of the poorest with no income, no shelter, and no assets, and vulnerable to disease. The story has moved off the front pages, but a quiet disaster continues. Many millions of people will have to be fed for months.
The severity of the disaster prompted the United Nations to appeal for some $210 million in further aid. Damages are estimated to be sizable.
The worst flood of the last century was in 1998, when 68% of the country was covered for months, also causing billions in damages.
Bangladesh is a huge lowland sponge, which receives drainage from an area twelve times its own size. About 80% of its rainfall comes in the monsoon between May and October.
Most of the country lies within the broad alluvial delta formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers, which drain a 1.75 million square-kilometer area in People’s Republic of China, India, Myanmar, and Nepal.
Bangladesh depends on the annual flooding. The economy of Bangladesh is largely agricultural, and together the waters of the Ganges and Brahmaputra carry about 1,185 million tons of sediment. The waters regenerate soil and increase agricultural productivity, replenish groundwater, and rejuvenate wetlands for fish and aquatic plants.
But the sediment also clogs rivers and drainage channels, impeding flow and worsening the floods.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has given substantial assistance to Bangladesh in response to previous major floods. After 1998, it provided $104 million in emergency financial assistance. It was used to restore water supply and sanitation; and repair schools and training centers, roads and bridges, flood and water control structures, rural roads and markets, railways, and urban infrastructure.
After the floods in 2000 in southwest Bangladesh, ADB provided $67.8 million for rehabilitation of vital economic and social infrastructure.
The challenge is to develop innovative flood management that moves away from “crisis management” toward long-term management strategies that recognize the benefits of floods.
“ "In the future, controlling the annual flood hinges on solving the problem of riverbank erosion along the Brahmaputra-Jamuna River. But no solution is yet in sight. Flood preparedness is the answer now. This includes pre-emergency activities like flood forecasting, flood warning, evacuation and sheltering, flood fighting, and organizing emergency response "
- Dr. Hamidur Rahman Khan, flood expert
Damage control needs to focus on flood preparedness rather than prevention, says Dr. Hamidur Rahman Khan, a flood expert.
In the future, he says, controlling the annual flood hinges on solving the problem of riverbank erosion along the Brahmaputra-Jamuna River.
But no solution is yet in sight. Flood preparedness is the answer now. This includes pre-emergency activities, such as flood forecasting, flood warning, evacuation and sheltering, flood fighting, and organizing emergency response.
Funding agencies say improved early warning systems have already helped reduce the numbers of deaths from natural disasters in Bangladesh.
Nonstructural measures are needed, such as further education and training of local communities to better manage flooding effects. This could include planting trees along embankments, constructing earth platforms close to flood-prone villages, or developing elevated houses. Other methods include
To read Mr. Rahman’s full interview, visit adb.org/Water/Champions/khan.asp
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