cuases and consequences of the 1988 flood of Bangladesh?

Question

1988 Flood of Bangladesh

Answer 1

I live in Bangladesh and experienced devastating floods of 1988 when the country was almost under water for a month and Dhaka the capital city was completely immobilized for at least a week.

I found the following very relevant information from Wikipedia:

Bangladesh, being located at the confluence of several of South Asia's major rivers, suffers from floods almost every year. Major portions of the country are part of the Ganges Delta, the largest flood plain in the world. The floods have caused havoc in Bangladesh throughout history, especially during the recent years: 1987, 1988, and 1998.

Causes: Bangladesh is a very low lying country, (only 3-7 feet in most parts). The contribution of climate change in the last few years has set in motion the rise in sea water levels, the narrow north tip to the Bay of Bengal, tropical storms that whip up wind speeds of up 140 mph (225 Kph)send waves (up to 26 feet tall) crashing into the coast, the shallow sea bed and the fact that water coming down from the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra can not escape when the water level rises all contribute to the severe flooding of the Bangladesh coastline.

However this is not the only reason as due to the effects of deforestation in Nepal, there have been an increase in the flood risk of the two major rivers running through Bangladesh. The river Ganges and the river Brahmaputra. Deforestation leads to more water in rivers which allows more sediment to build up which leads to a higher risk of flooding.

To further increase the risk of flooding, Bangladesh is a frequent receiver of cyclones. These fierce winds create chaos in the water, and often, destroy banks and dams. Since Bangladesh is adjacent to a warm ocean, cyclones are a common occurrence.

There is not enough land in Bangladesh, especially with the number of people that are farmers, so people take whatever land they can get, including slopes. The soil that is being eroded then reduces the depths of the rivers, making them easily flooded. A thirty foot deep river can become twenty feet deep.

Effects: Over 57 per cent of the land area was flooded. In Assam in the north-east more than 1 million people lost their homes as a result of the floods. In the Nalbari district, 240 villages were submerged. Over 1000 people were killed and millions were made homeless. There were severe shortages of drinking water. Diseases such as bronchitis and diarrhoea spread. As the waters drained away, brown fields of rotting crops, villages buried in sand and silt, and wrecked roads and bridges were left behind. The floods cost the country almost $1 billion.

Answer 2

Bangladesh, being located at the confluence of several of South Asia's major rivers, suffers from floods almost every year. Major portions of the country are part of the Ganges Delta, the largest flood plain in the world. The floods have caused havoc in Bangladesh throughout history, especially during the recent years: 1987, 1988, and 1998.
Causes
Bangladesh is a very low lying country, (only 3-7 feet in most parts). The contribution of climate change in the last few years has set in motion the rise in sea water levels, the narrow north tip to the Bay of Bengal, tropical storms that whip up wind speeds of up 140 mph (225 Kph)send waves (up to 26 feet tall) crashing into the coast, the shallow sea bed and the fact that water coming down from the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra can not escape when the water level rises all contribute to the severe flooding of the Bangladesh coastline.

However this is not the only reason as due to the effects of deforestation in Nepal, there have been an increase in the flood risk of the two major rivers running through Bangladesh. The river Ganges and the river Brahmaputra. Deforestation leads to more water in rivers which allows more sediment to build up which leads to a higher risk of flooding.

To further increase the risk of flooding, Bangladesh is a frequent receiver of cyclones. These fierce winds create chaos in the water, and often, destroy banks and dams. Since Bangladesh is adjacent to a warm ocean, cyclones are a common occurrence.

There is not enough land in Bangladesh, especially with the number of people that are farmers, so people take whatever land they can get, including slopes. The soil that is being eroded then reduces the depths of the rivers, making them easily flooded. A thirty foot deep river can become twenty feet deep.[1]


[edit] Effects
Over 57 per cent of the land area was flooded. In Assam in the north-east more than 1 million people lost their homes as a result of the floods. In the Nalbari district, 240 villages were submerged . Over 1000 people were killed and millions were made homeless. There were severe shortages of drinking water. Diseases such as bronchitis and diarrhoea spread. As the waters drained away, brown fields of rotting crops, villages buried in sand and silt, and wrecked roads and bridges were left behind. The floods cost the country almost $1 billion.

Answer 3

Bangladesh Flood 1988

Answer 4

Another problem they have is the fertile soil is often washed away meaning future crops don't do as well. In the 1998 floods they lost 20% of production from their export industries as over 400 hundred clothing factories had to close as did many other factories and industries. Many had to move to larger cities to find work causing over crowding and their services being unable to cope with the large influx of people.

Answer 5

Thus we have been told over and again that such a natural disaster shows how 'puny' humanity truly is before the might of Mother Nature; in the words of UK foreign secretary Jack Straw, we are supposed to find this 'truly humbling as well as profoundly tragic' (1). The implicit message is that we should be less arrogant and give up any idea of trying to overcome nature.


Of course, it was not really possible to pin the responsibility for this tsunami on human intervention, since man-made global warming (now commonly blamed for many of the world's problems) cannot cause tectonic plates to move around. But that has not stopped some from trying to twist the story to fit this familiar script. So we have been warned that the killer tsunami is a sure sign of what is to come for us all, if we don't do more to combat global warming by reducing our emissions - which means cutting back on economic output growth. Some have claimed that 'too much' tourism development in South Asia was partly to blame for the disaster, because it has led to 'environmental degradation' and reduced the area's natural sea defences.


Even if we don't want to add to the millions of useless words spoken and written about the tragedy, it is necessary to respond briefly to these responses. For a start, let us remember to put this disaster in some perspective. These terrible events are so shocking because most of us have seen nothing like them before. The earthquake was apparently the world's biggest for 40 years, and it caused a huge tsunami across a region where tidal waves are rare. It would be crazy to use this extraordinary disaster as evidence that we are somehow all adrift on a dangerous planet that is completely beyond our control.


More importantly, we need to counter all the nonsense about becoming more humble and 'learning the lessons' of humanity's limitations. This disaster was obviously not caused by human activity. But more human activity, leading to greater economic and social development, can help us to limit the effects of such disasters. There is nothing natural about how much damage an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami causes, or how many casualties it leaves behind. These things are largely determined by the state of the societies that are struck. As a general rule, the more advanced and richer we are, the better protected we will be.


The vast majority of the thousands killed in South Asia were not foreign tourists, but locals from impoverished fishing and farming communities near the coasts. It is a sign of backward, underdeveloped economies that so many are still dependent on the sea and the coast, much as their ancestors were (with the addition that many now also depend on beach tourism). It is the lack of economic and social development in modern towns and cities, with properly designed and constructed buildings, that left these communities so exposed to nature.


There has been much talk about the lack of a hi-tech warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis in South Asia, such as the seismological monitoring system already in place in the Pacific Ocean (where such phenomena are more common). Yet whatever its merits, such a system would seem to be of limited use in societies that lack the basic infrastructure necessary to communicate warnings and evacuate communities. Some in the West may be shocked to learn that not every little Asian fishing village is on the internet. They would need more than a precautionary warning system (which in any case is prone to false alarms) to cope better with the impact.

Answer 6

cause, too many people living at low level - booming population.

cause, lots of rain

result, flood, death, starvation, lost crops, disease.