Bangladesh Case

Bangladesh 2004 Floods

We have touched down safely in Bangladesh and are settled (as much as you can be) with our relief work having started a couple of days ago. The devastation is massive- you won't believe it!

All the crops that were so fertile have been wiped out and the animals are everywhere having been displaced by the velocity of the water waves. In the lowland areas we can see bits of straw from what used to be houses all broken crushed on the ground; scattered by the winds. We still can't access some areas because they are submerged despite the fact that it has been over 2 weeks! As we walk around, there are homeless people that come up to us, begging for food and water at our feet. The doctors are exceedingly busy because of the many snake bite poisoning, rat bites and disease from the contaminated water and sewage.

I don't know how much it will cost the government to build it all back up- with the roads, bridges, railway lines and general infrastructure. Even the airport has closed down, which made our landing extremely perilous. So many aid workers are stuck in nearby countries and not able to help because of this. The food and temporary shelters with help for the poor residents is few and far between. Many more are dying because they are so weak when they could be helped and saved.

We are all trying to work as best as possible and we are going out, putting up shelters, giving them medicinal treatments, sterilised water and food like rice. There are surveyors going out to the worst affected areas and assessing their 'damage vs. needs'. We have tried to get all the healthier and richer people to join together and help as well- almost like a self help scheme to build new property and houses. However we still need more aid workers here and money to fund it from the UN.

We hope to later start at some river management schemes hopefully to stop as much as possible because Bangladesh has a history of floods. Experts are telling us that these extreme floods are caused by lots of factors. They say that if the nearby rivers (Ganges, Brahmaputra and the Meghma) have too much discharge, they will flood their banks onto the floodplain of Bangladesh causing flooding. This happens when the Himalayas' snow melts and when the rain from the monsoons in Spring/Summer enters any of the rivers. Cyclones, which are prominent in Bangladesh have huge winds which stir up the water and deposit some of their own. Also, the Bay of Bengal creates tidal surges.

On the other hand, we have been told that this disaster wasn't just due to natural causes. Global warming speeds up the melting of the snow on the Himalayas, therefore the water into the rivers is greater meaning a higher water level. However, the main reason for this is the rapid population growth. This means that more places are inhabited that are more prone to flooding nearer the river banks and