Citation

Khalil GM. Nat. Hazards 1990; 3(4): 379-401.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00124395

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Bangladesh has been experiencing floods more frequently than ever before. Since 1947, she has been hit by extremely devastating floods in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1984, 1987, and 1988. Each year's highest flood record and damage costs have been broken by that of the subsequent year. All means of communication become paralysed. People lose food grains, domestic animals, homesteads, and lives. They remain marooned without food and drinking water until relief arrives. Despite huge spending on flood control, the intensity of the floods has been increasing. Therefore, speculation is naturally rife about the causes. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors which contribute to these devastating floods, and then to recommend an appropriate strategy for effective flood control. The geography, geology, and hydrology of Bangladesh are briefly discussed. The whole of the country is a huge river basin criss-crossed by as many as seven hundred rivers, tributaries, and distributaries, having a total length of 22 155 km. The river-beds are rendered shallow by heavy deposits of alluvial earth each year and tend easily to cause inundations. The quantum of silt carried by the river systems into Bangladesh is estimated to be 2.4 × 109 tonnes/yr. 'Disciplining' the rivers means keeping the rivers navigable all year round, removing excessive deposits of silt where they threaten to block a channel, preventing widening by erosion, contracting the width where the river is excessively wide, and last but not least, preventing construction whose eventual impact might prove harmful. Natural disasters do not respect political frontiers, nothing can stop them, but their adverse impact could be minimised. The author emphasises the need for employing the abundant cheap manpower, local materials, and indigenous technology for flood control projects.

Language: en