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Bangladesh Flood 1998
Bangladesh witnessed one of the most catastrophic floods of its entire history. By the end of the floods, over 70 percent of the country had been or was under water. By the end of the flooding in October, over a thousand people were dead the over 25 million people were homeless. In the end, 7 million homes were also destroyed.
http://www.reliefweb.int/mapc/asi_sth/cnt/bgd/bgdflood.gif
Bangladesh is a country in which half the population lives in floodplains which are lower than sea level. Bangladesh is used to heavy rain at this time of the year, May to September. Flooding of 20 percent of the country is considered good for the agriculture and good for the economy. In 1998, heavy rain started two month later than expected and it rained continuously. Rain also fell late in the year. As the table below shows, rain fell heavily in different parts of the months and caused the rivers to peak. When this happened, the country could not recover properly before the next rainfall came and caused a bigger flood.
| May - June | · Very little rainfall · Rainfall should be heavy at this time of year |
| July | · Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Ganges rise · 28th 30 percent country underwater |
| August | · Situation gets better at beginning · 20th rivers rise again · 30th 40 percent of country flooded · Nearly 400 killed by 28th |
| September | · Heavy rain, late in year · Highest peak of rivers: 7th · Up to 70 percent of country underwater by end of month · 30th: most of the water drained |
(The New Wider World)
The causes of this flood are a few simple geographical and climate factors. The main factor was the heavy raining that was late in the year. This caused the soil in Bangladesh to be hyper saturated. This in turn caused the coming rain to be made into surface runoffs, which turned into mudslides and floods in the floodplains. The runoffs caused by the heavy rainfall were also caused by the impermeable rocks which lie underneath the soil. Another factor that played a vital part in the flooding of Ban
gladesh was the fact that most of the flooding occurred in the high tide season. This stopped most of the rivers and drainage basins from releasing water into the sea, which would have reduced the extent of the damage. Another factor that is indirectly related to the flooding is Global Warming. This phenomenon caused the glaciers and ice in the Himalaya Mountains to melt, increasing the amount of water released into the rivers which flowed into Bangladesh. This water discharge and the heavy rainfall accounted for over 70 percent of the floods.
(news.bbc.co.uk)(www.wsws.org)
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As I stated before, the floods caused catastrophic damage to the people of Bangladesh. Over a thousand people were killed and over 25 million people were homeless. 7 million homes were also destroyed by the flood. Apart from these statistics, the floods also destroyed over 660,000 acres of crops. This was a huge loss to the economy of Bangladesh, for it relies on its crops for money and for feeding its people. This caused a bigger problem when you take into perspective that 25 million people lost their homes, and everything they owned, including their money and all their belongings. This caused a problem for the government because it had almost nothing to feed its starving population with.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/160000/images/_160313_Copy_of_bangladesh_flood_refugees_150_ap_28-08-1998.jpg
In order to feed its starving population, Bangladesh asked for aid. US 889$ million to be precise. This money was not all given to Bangladesh. Also, Bangladesh pledged 3$ per homeless person for food and small necessities, but even this was not given in whole. It took Bangladesh over two years to recover from this catastrophe. Bangladesh never really fully recovered from this disastrous year until the mid 21st century, but international aid came late and millions of people died because of plagues and diseases which could not be cured because of the flood.
Bangladesh has evacuated around half of the people from the floodplains after this flooding. Citizens volunteered to help in the villages where people were injured. Foreign aid also came but it took time for the aid to come, and for most cases, it was too late.
Because Bangladesh is an LEDC, its people and government had a hard time fixing all the damages it sustained. They did not have enough money to repair all the damages and feed all the homeless people. In an MEDC, money would have been used right away from the country's treasury.
Bibliography
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/157254.stm
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/sep1998/bang-s15.shtml
David Waugh. The New Wider World. United Kingdom: Nelson Thorns Ltd., 1998
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