Bangladesh Floods 1998

The country of Bangladesh experienced severe flooding between July and September 1998 caused by excess water in the major rivers which flow through Bangladesh.

With such a high percentage of the country affected the flood had severe effects on the people and environment of Bangladesh. These floods severely affected over 30 million people and cost $3 billion, money that Bangladesh could not afford.

Causes

The 1998 flood was very severe with about 75% of the country submerged including large areas of the capital city Dhaka.

The flooding in July and August was caused by heavy intense monsoon rainfall accompanied by snowmelt, closely followed by heavy rains over Bangladesh in September which raised the already high discharge in the three rivers even further. This can be seen in the changes to the depths of the rivers.

- The depth of the Ganges in July was 13m, just below the flood level of 14m but rose to 15m in August.

- The Brahmaputra exceeded its flood level of 15m in July and again in August and September

- The Brahmaputra exceeded its flood level of 15m in July and again in August and September

The level of the sea in the Bay of Bengal was also high (a record 5.5m above average sea level on 10th September) and this slowed down the normal flow of water which resulted in higher depths in the rivers.

The result was that the duration of the flood was much longer than normal and this increased the impacts. For 67 days the water was above danger level with the flooding starting in late June and remaining until early September.

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It has also been suggested that the flood was made worse due to a number of other possible factors,

- The extraction of groundwater for irrigation had lowered the water table and caused the land to subside by about 2.5m.

- The use of water for irrigation upstream has reduced the amount of silt deposited so the level of the land has not been built up.

- Increased amounts of urbanisation has led to higher peak flow on the rivers with much shorter lag times and a greater frequency of floods.

- Deforestation in the Himalayas has increased run ...

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