Bangladesh Flooding

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries, and has three of the world’s biggest rivers passing through it: the Ganges, the Meghna and the Brahmaputra. One of the many reasons why the country always floods is because more than 70% of the ground area is only 1 metre above sea level, and 10% of the ground area consists of lakes and rivers. Also, one of the main reasons is that the snow in the Himalayas melt and flow down the river to Bangladesh’s huge plains, flooding them with water mixed with mud, leaving people trying to wade through the sticky mud, with no success.

Most people in Bangladesh blame global warming, for it has brought ice caps to melt and water levels all over the world to rise. Snow melts earlier because of higher temperatures, and when it evaporates, it returns as rainfall.

Flooding in Bangladesh, already quite poor, has caused many problems. When floods come, people die of many reasons: firstly, serious shortages of water and food cause people to starve; secondly, people die of diseases and epidemics such as cholera and malaria. To the economy, millions of tonnes of rice were destroyed, together with one-half of the country’s cattle and poultry.

The people lining up for food and water after the peak of the flood has receded. The water comes up to the people’s shins, but people are desperate for medical aids. Rats scavenge everywhere,contaminating precious water and food, though people do not receive sufficient food go to the “rat table”, where dead rats are put, to at least put something into their stomach.

People in Hong Kong can hardly understand the fear, despair and hopelessness when it comes to floods in Bangladesh. I hope people will soon realize, that a flood targets the economy, goes at the people. It hits the poor countries worst; hits the poor people most. It is none but a serious catastrophe.