Floods in Bangladesh

Floods in Bangladesh

When water swells up unnaturally and submerges a vast area of land, it is called flood. Flood is a devastating natural calamity. It occurs in Bangladesh almost every year and causes a lot of damages to our life and property.

There are many causes of flood in Bangladesh. Excessive rainfall is the main cause of flood in our country.  When it rains heavily for days together, the rivers cannot hold and carry down so much water to the sea.  As a result, water overflows the bank of the rivers and floods a vast area of land.  Flood is also caused by the tidal surge. Sometimes much water comes down for the hills and causes floods. The melting of snow in the Himalayas also causes floods. 

However, flood causes a lot of harm to life and property.  Crops are greatly damaged. Men, animal, houses etc.  are washed away.  Thousands of people become   homeless.  They suffer greatly for want of food, cloth, shelter, drinking water, medicine, etc.  Sometimes, men and poisonous insects and snakes have to live together and many people die by snake bite. Flood also disrupts the communication system and causes untold suffering to the affected people.

The sufferings of the people become miserable when flood water begins to go down. Famine and pestilence break out in an epidemic form. There is a dire scarcity of food everywhere. The prices of daily necessary things go high up. Many diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, etc.  break out and take a heavy toll of human lives. 

Though flood is harmful, it causes some good to us too. It washes away all sorts of rubbishes and purifies the environment. Besides, during flood, silt is scattered over the land and makes the soil alluvial and fertile. As a result, many crops then grow on it easily.

Floods occur in our country almost every year. The floods of 1954, 1961, 1968, 1970, 1986, 1988, were very dangerous. Flood has also occurred in some parts of Bangladesh in 2015.  But the flood of 1988 was more serious. It broke all the records of losses and sufferings of the past.

People lose everything in flood. So, relief work should go on during and after flood.  Food stuff, drinking water, cloth, medicine etc. should be distributed among the affected people.  In this respect, Govt. and Non-Govt. organisations should come forward to help the affected people.

As flood causes a great damage to us, measures should be taken to prevent it.  All the big and small rivers must be dredged properly. High roads should be built along the banks of the big rives and the sea-coast. Dams and embankments can be built on the rivers to control the flow of water.

Flood visits our country almost every year. It causes untold sufferings to the people and damages our property. It is the main barrier of our economic development. So, the Government   should take effective steps to control flood.