Early preparation to face flood
Friday, 27 July 2007
Syed Ishtiaque Reza
HEAVY rains across Bangladesh over the last couple of weeks have left the administration counting the cost in lives and destruction of property. Torrential rains pounded the country, causing floods and mudslides that have left scores of people dead and many missing. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced with tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields gone under water.
Officials said floods in rivers in the south and eastern parts of the country had left nearly half a million people stranded in their homes. More rains have been forecast for the next few days. Streets in the capital remained under knee-deep rain water for hours together in the recent days.
Already there are warnings that the flood this year could be devastating like the floods that swept Bangladesh in 1988 or the one in 2004.
Flood in Bangladesh is very common. The seasonal flooding regime has been characterised by inundation of the different types of land, which have been divided into five categories, ranging from very low to high land. Except high lands (which cover 29 per cent of the country's total area), all other types are subjected to flood inundation in different degrees. Excepting very low lands, human settlements are found in all other land categories.
Flash floods occur during mid-April before the on-set of the south-westerly monsoon. Rain-fed floods generally happen in the deltas in the south-western part of the country and are increasing in low-lying urban areas. River floods are the most common; the areas are inundated during monsoon season along the river and in cases far beyond the riverbanks. Storm surge floods occur along the coastal areas, which has a coastline of about 800 km along the northern end of Bay of Bengal.
During the last half-century, at least eight extreme flood events occurred affecting 50 per cent of land area. These extreme events are generated by excessive rainfall in the catchments. When water levels in the three major river systems rise simultaneously and cross the danger marks (usually starting from mid-July and continuing until mid-September), an extreme flood situation usually occurs all over the country.
As the flood is knocking at the door the administration should be prepared for facing it. Flooding and erosion are part of life in Bangladesh, and are vital for the renewal of land fertility. However, severe floods with devastating effects on people's livelihoods used to happen once every twenty years. They are now occurring every five to seven years, taking place as these did in 1987, 1988, 1995, 1998 and 2004.
In 2004 for example, there were very bad floods; 38 per cent of the country was covered in water that destroyed 80 per cent of our crops and left 10 million people homeless. With flooding, children get water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery. They don't have clean water to drink. As a result of the floods, people lose the crops they were growing on the land around their houses and, therefore, they lose their sources of income.
So far, few plans have worked well in the way of stopping floods. There was limited success in reducing monsoon flood depths. Projects aimed to protect crops in northeast Bangladesh from early flooding were very successful. The most successful plan has been submersible embankments. The embankments protect the winter rice crop from flooding in April-May when it is ready for harvest. By July, when summer rice crops need the fertile silt, the floods are much higher, and the embankments are flooded. These embankments are not only used for protection, but they also serve as roads, a linear housing development, agro-forestry, crops, grazing, markets, sites for wells, and emergency flood refuges. These embankments were not built for this, but in the future, they will be built to even better provide for all of these functions. Overall, it appears small, simple projects are most likely to work. Bangladesh must forestall harmful floodings, but still be able to get the fertile silt and fish roe.
It is only rational that the country prepares it well in advance to deal with the calamity when it arrives. During floods large numbers of people are made homeless and standing crops on vast tracts of land are destroyed. People are forced to seek refuge elsewhere, deserting their dwellings. Want of food and shelter, outbreak of diseases, etc., make the situation really unbearable for many. In such a situation, they need shelter, food, clothes, health care, sanitation and so on. But time and again it is seen that lack of preparedness and coordination among different government ministries and departments has failed to control the situation. The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre is also poorly equipped. Successive governments have made little effort to upgrade the system in line with the changing pattern of weather and climate. Although there is a disaster management and relief ministry, it does little to help the victims and rehabilitate them when the water recedes.
The authorities are yet to frame a well coordinated disaster management policy. The government needs to approve as early as possible an effective national disaster management plan that will not only ensure that the different government agencies are aware of their responsibilities with regard to disaster management, but will also improve the overall preparedness of the government to deal with natural disasters, both in terms of minimising the adverse impact as well as providing relief and rehabilitation support to the victims.
HEAVY rains across Bangladesh over the last couple of weeks have left the administration counting the cost in lives and destruction of property. Torrential rains pounded the country, causing floods and mudslides that have left scores of people dead and many missing. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced with tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields gone under water.
Officials said floods in rivers in the south and eastern parts of the country had left nearly half a million people stranded in their homes. More rains have been forecast for the next few days. Streets in the capital remained under knee-deep rain water for hours together in the recent days.
Already there are warnings that the flood this year could be devastating like the floods that swept Bangladesh in 1988 or the one in 2004.
Flood in Bangladesh is very common. The seasonal flooding regime has been characterised by inundation of the different types of land, which have been divided into five categories, ranging from very low to high land. Except high lands (which cover 29 per cent of the country's total area), all other types are subjected to flood inundation in different degrees. Excepting very low lands, human settlements are found in all other land categories.
Flash floods occur during mid-April before the on-set of the south-westerly monsoon. Rain-fed floods generally happen in the deltas in the south-western part of the country and are increasing in low-lying urban areas. River floods are the most common; the areas are inundated during monsoon season along the river and in cases far beyond the riverbanks. Storm surge floods occur along the coastal areas, which has a coastline of about 800 km along the northern end of Bay of Bengal.
During the last half-century, at least eight extreme flood events occurred affecting 50 per cent of land area. These extreme events are generated by excessive rainfall in the catchments. When water levels in the three major river systems rise simultaneously and cross the danger marks (usually starting from mid-July and continuing until mid-September), an extreme flood situation usually occurs all over the country.
As the flood is knocking at the door the administration should be prepared for facing it. Flooding and erosion are part of life in Bangladesh, and are vital for the renewal of land fertility. However, severe floods with devastating effects on people's livelihoods used to happen once every twenty years. They are now occurring every five to seven years, taking place as these did in 1987, 1988, 1995, 1998 and 2004.
In 2004 for example, there were very bad floods; 38 per cent of the country was covered in water that destroyed 80 per cent of our crops and left 10 million people homeless. With flooding, children get water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery. They don't have clean water to drink. As a result of the floods, people lose the crops they were growing on the land around their houses and, therefore, they lose their sources of income.
So far, few plans have worked well in the way of stopping floods. There was limited success in reducing monsoon flood depths. Projects aimed to protect crops in northeast Bangladesh from early flooding were very successful. The most successful plan has been submersible embankments. The embankments protect the winter rice crop from flooding in April-May when it is ready for harvest. By July, when summer rice crops need the fertile silt, the floods are much higher, and the embankments are flooded. These embankments are not only used for protection, but they also serve as roads, a linear housing development, agro-forestry, crops, grazing, markets, sites for wells, and emergency flood refuges. These embankments were not built for this, but in the future, they will be built to even better provide for all of these functions. Overall, it appears small, simple projects are most likely to work. Bangladesh must forestall harmful floodings, but still be able to get the fertile silt and fish roe.
It is only rational that the country prepares it well in advance to deal with the calamity when it arrives. During floods large numbers of people are made homeless and standing crops on vast tracts of land are destroyed. People are forced to seek refuge elsewhere, deserting their dwellings. Want of food and shelter, outbreak of diseases, etc., make the situation really unbearable for many. In such a situation, they need shelter, food, clothes, health care, sanitation and so on. But time and again it is seen that lack of preparedness and coordination among different government ministries and departments has failed to control the situation. The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre is also poorly equipped. Successive governments have made little effort to upgrade the system in line with the changing pattern of weather and climate. Although there is a disaster management and relief ministry, it does little to help the victims and rehabilitate them when the water recedes.
The authorities are yet to frame a well coordinated disaster management policy. The government needs to approve as early as possible an effective national disaster management plan that will not only ensure that the different government agencies are aware of their responsibilities with regard to disaster management, but will also improve the overall preparedness of the government to deal with natural disasters, both in terms of minimising the adverse impact as well as providing relief and rehabilitation support to the victims.