Flooding in Bangladesh

1. Assessment Task: You are a photo editor for a news organisation who is putting together a presentation on the causes, effects and responses to flooding in Bangladesh. You will be concentrating on one particular flood event in 1998. There SHOULD be more than one photo for each section. Each photo has to have a caption that describes and explains the relevance of the photo. I.e. it should not be – here is a picture of flat land, it should be: Flooding in Bangladesh What are the Causes, Effects and Responses to Flooding in Bangladesh. “Bangladesh in mainly low lying flat land with …% being less than …. Metres above sea level. This means when rivers flood it covers a large area of land. Source: www.mrpiersiscoolandhisphotosaregreat.com

2. What are the Physical Causes of Flooding? Well the landscape in Bangladesh is very flat, 80% of it is less than 6metres above sea level making floods easier to happen. Bangladesh has a monsoon climate and receives 1800 to 2600mm of rainfall a year . The monsoon rains blow north from the sea.

3. What are the Human Causes of Flooding Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Bangladesh is being covered in more and more buildings and roads , which make floods that much more easier to take place and leaving that much more damage.

4. Case Study 1998 Floods • On the next few pages add the effects of the flood. You should look at the primary effects (those that happen straight away) and the secondary effects (those that may happen over the next few days and months)

5. PRIMARY EFFECTS Diarrhea was the main killer during the flood in Bangladesh, killing up to 700 Bangladeshi people. 700000 people suffered snakebites In Bangladesh after the flood . Fortunately they have access to anti-venom or many would not survive from the deadly snake bites.

6. Secondary effects Up to 140 people died after eating rotten foods during the food shortages in Bangladesh. The floods have killed more than 950 people and left between 30 and 40 million homeless out of a total population of 124 million in 1998.

7. Responses to Flooding • Here you will look at the immediate and longer term responses of the government and other organisations • Think about medical help, food help in the first instance and some of the longer term ways people could respond to regular flooding.

8. RESPONSES This is one of the many small shelters in Bangladesh . World Vision will provide 9,300 temporary shelters and is already distributing seven-day relief packs for families and those in need . Emergency teams are also providing first aid services to those hurt by falling rubble or trees etc. 100 mobile groups came to Bangladesh to help people with waterborne diseases , lung infections and skin diseases.

9. Long Term Responses to flooding • Here you need to look at different responses such as • flood prevention schemes, shelters and early warning systems.

10. Long term responses Disaster Management Committees have met at the District, Thana and Union level. The mechanism enables emergency relief from the central government to be distributed to the most needy and the relocation of displaced families to flood shelters where they will be assisted, but that doesn't mean they helped everyone so other Bangladeshi people will be treated a few days later or even a few weeks later.

11. Bibliography http://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.1807 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070531155934AAcqTA3