DOCSLIB.ORG

Response Preparedness Plan Bangladesh: Floods

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Response Preparedness Plan Bangladesh: Floods Response Preparedness Plan Bangladesh: Floods Humanitarian Coordination Task Team Final Draft June 2018 1 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 2. FLOOD IMPACT MODEL 2.1 Summary of Floods Risk 2.1 Risk Monitoring of Floods 2.2 Consequences of Flood Disaster 3. NEEDS ANALYSIS 3.1 Community Perceptions on Needs 3.2 Analysis of Needs and Key Immediate Needs (KIN) Immediate (1-2 weeks) Short-term (2-4 weeks) Sectoral Needs Analysis (5 weeks to 6 months) 4. RESPONSE CAPACITY ANALYSIS 4.1 Sector/Cluster Response Capacity 4.2 Response Modalities 5. COORDINATION AND MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS 5.1 Humanitarian Coordination 5.2 Private Sector 5.3 Operational Support 6. PLANNING AND ADVOCACY 2 1. INTRODUCTION Bangladesh is one of the most flood prone countries in the world, which is situated in south Asian sub- continent. Bangladesh has 230 rivers of which 57 are trans-boundary Rivers. Three large rivers systems e.g. Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, in the world covering a combined total catchments area of about 1.7 million sq. km. extending over Bhutan, China, India and Nepal, flow through this country. Out of these huge catchments only 7% lies in Bangladesh. Floods are annual phenomena, with the most severe occurring during the months of July and August. Regular river floods affect nearly 20% of the country on an average, increasing up to 68% in extreme years. Bangladesh tries to live with flood and disaster with structural and non-structural measures. Systematic structural measures began by implementing flood control projects in sixties after the colossal flood of 1963. Non-structural measures have introduced in seventies which includes early warning system, capacity building of communities and institutions etc. Flooding is a natural phenomenon, which cannot be prevented. Complete flood control is not in the interests of most Bangladeshi farmers. The flood control measures and policies need to be directed to mitigation of flood damage, rather than flood prevention. The basic factors of Floods in Bangladesh are as follows; • Bangladesh has to drain out runoff of an area which is 12 times larger than its size. Only 7% of the combined catchment areas of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers (i.e., 0.12 Mkm2 out of 1.76 Mkm2) are within Bangladesh. The remaining 93% are distributed over Nepal, India, China and Bhutan. • Annually, 1,360,000 million m3 of discharge originate outside Bangladesh. About 85 per cent of this discharge is generated between June-October. • The amount of water which passes over the country can create a pool having a depth of about 9 meters. • Besides water the rivers also carry high loads of silt from the steep and denuded upstream - an estimated 1.2 to 2.4 billion tons of sediments are carried annually to the Bay of Bengal. The combined, annual sediment load of the Ganges and Brahmaputra is estimated to, be 1185 million tons. Their respective share is 38% and 62%. • About 1/3 of Bangladesh or 49,000 sq. km. area are influenced by tides, in the Bay of Bengal. The overall objective of this Flood Response Preparedness Plan is to strengthen the existing capacity of the Government to lead and ensure an effective, timely, and coordinated response that will mitigate the risks and reduce the impact of disaster on the vulnerable communities. • To ensure the availability of the stock of assets under government and non-government custody in the disaster affected area • To ensure availability of additional assets if needed • To ensure the safety and security of common people and rule of laws • To undertake effort in reducing damage of properties and lives • To undertake every effort needed as per the local disaster management planning 3 2. FLOODS IMPACT MODEL 2.1 Summary of Floods Risk According to the World Risk Report 2016, of 173 countries, Bangladesh is the fifth most disaster-prone country in the world, particularly susceptible to devastating natural disasters such as flooding. Although the country and its people have adapted to regular flooding that maintain the equilibrium of a range of ecological systems, in extreme years, up to 68% of the country have been inundated with devastating effect. Floods by nature are complex events caused by a range of human vulnerabilities, inappropriate development planning and climate variability. There are different ways of classifying and categorizing floods along geographic and geophysical characteristics. In Bangladesh, floods are most commonly classified as: • Flash floods, which affect both the hilly areas of the south east and can cause landslides and the Haor Basin area of the north east; • River flooding, also known as monsoon flooding, an annual event which can be extreme some years; • Water logging, is the name given to the phenomenon in the southwest of Bangladesh where river flooding is unable drain and causes prolonged flooding. Widespread and prolonged flooding can lead the population to become extremely vulnerable and can bring devastation to crops, livestock, and property as well as disrupt livelihoods and cause loss of life and livelihoods options. In order to identify the kind of floods disaster most relevant for Bangladesh, a risk analysis was conducted with government officials and members of the Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT). Floods were identified, they were ranked twice on a scale of 1 to 5; once to reflect their perceived impact and the second time for likelihood of occurrence. Multiplying these two variables gave a value indicating the gravity — low, medium or high — of a given 4 risk. The outcome of the risk analysis was a commonly agreed inter-agency Country Risk Profile for Bangladesh (Figure 1). Figure 1. Floods Risk Profile: Bangladesh 5. Critical River/Monsoon 4. Severe flooding Waterlogging Flash floods Impact 3. Moderate Landslide 2. Minor 1. Negligible 1. Very 3. Moderately 2. Unlikely 4. Likely 5. Very likely Unlikely Likely Likelihood Likelihood: Impact: 1= Very unlikely (up to 20% chance of the event happening) 1 = Negligible (minimal impact on overall population) 2 = Unlikely (20-40%) 2 = Minor (minor impact on overall population) 3 = Moderately likely (40-60%) 3 = Moderate (moderate impact on overall population) 4 = Likely (60-80%) 4 = Severe (severe impact on overall population) 5 = Very likely (over 80%) 5 = Critical (major impact on overall population) *Hazards to be cross-checked and referenced with official data and statistics Scenario 1: Landslide- Based on the landslide experience on 2017 People Affected 79,234 persons including 33,907 persons severely affected among whom 4,028 are children. Districts Affected 5 districts affected (Bandarban, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Khagrachari and, Rangamati) among which Bandarban, Chittagong and Rangamati are the worst affected. Bandarban and Rangamati are part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Deaths 160 (6 persons missing) Injured 187 people injured severely and moderately Main Impact • Destruction of shelters (est. 6,000) and other infrastructures (38 schools damaged, 11 adolescent clubs severely damaged, 129 para-centers). • High pressure on medical services. • Main road access blocked, compromised access to life-saving services including gender-based violence services. • Main communication lines broken • Power lines damaged • Shortage of fuel, food and water • Market prices increased • Food stocks lost • Livelihood activities hindered • Heightened risk of harassment and sexual assault 5 Scenario 2: Monsoon Floods- Based on the flood experience on 2017 People Affected 3.39 million people severely affected with number of displaced 344,785 people Districts Affected 31 districts affected in northern part of Bangladesh among which 10 districts (Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Nilphamary, Bogra, Thakurgaon, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Sunamganj) are severely affected Deaths 84 people Injured 17,018 people injured severely and moderately Main Impact • Most (>75%) houses severely damage • Majority of the traditional houses inundation. Considerable damage to structures of light to medium construction • All crops (food and cash crops) have been lost • Most of the household’s face difficulties to take care of their children • Electrical power distribution and communication services are completely disrupted • Most of the tube well fully or partially damage • Prices for basic commodities like fuel and water soared in the market due to scarcity of goods. • The power shortages hindered access to water. • Access to health, nutrition assistance, and life-saving intervention was initially limited due to road damage. • Protection related concerns have also increased, in particular for children and women. Scenario 3: Water Logging- Based on the Flooding & Prolonged Water-logging in South West Bangladesh on 2011 People Affected Estimated 921,942 people affected Districts Affected 3 districts Satkhira, Jessore and Khulna Deaths N/A Injured N/A Main Impact • Period of displacement and until rebuilding of houses and livelihoods commences is predicted to be 3 months or more • Community short term priority is adequate food support • Significant losses to main forms of livelihood (agriculture, shrimp cultivation, fisheries) which could take months to recover • Inadequate sanitation (for displaced and non-displaced people) • Inadequate temporary shelter • Displaced people will need to rebuild homes when the water recedes. Most houses of displaced people are destroyed • Water sources in submerged villages require rehabilitation • Health concerns include snake bite, diarrhea, access to services and pollution
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Download File
    ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19795-6 OPEN Seven centuries of reconstructed Brahmaputra River discharge demonstrate underestimated high discharge and flood hazard frequency ✉ Mukund P. Rao 1,2 , Edward R. Cook1, Benjamin I. Cook3,4, Rosanne D. D’Arrigo1, Jonathan G. Palmer 5, Upmanu Lall6, Connie A. Woodhouse 7, Brendan M. Buckley1, Maria Uriarte 8, Daniel A. Bishop 1,2, Jun Jian 9 & Peter J. Webster10 1234567890():,; The lower Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh and Northeast India often floods during the monsoon season, with catastrophic consequences for people throughout the region. While most climate models predict an intensified monsoon and increase in flood risk with warming, robust baseline estimates of natural climate variability in the basin are limited by the short observational record. Here we use a new seven-century (1309–2004 C.E) tree-ring recon- struction of monsoon season Brahmaputra discharge to demonstrate that the early instru- mental period (1956–1986 C.E.) ranks amongst the driest of the past seven centuries (13th percentile). Further, flood hazard inferred from the recurrence frequency of high discharge years is severely underestimated by 24–38% in the instrumental record compared to pre- vious centuries and climate model projections. A focus on only recent observations will therefore be insufficient to accurately characterise flood hazard risk in the region, both in the context of natural variability and climate change. 1 Tree Ring Laboratory, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. 2 Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. 3 NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY 10025, USA.
    [Show full text]
  • Attributing the 2017 Bangladesh Floods From
    Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1409–1429, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1409-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Attributing the 2017 Bangladesh floods from meteorological and hydrological perspectives Sjoukje Philip1, Sarah Sparrow2, Sarah F. Kew1, Karin van der Wiel1, Niko Wanders3,4, Roop Singh5, Ahmadul Hassan5, Khaled Mohammed2, Hammad Javid2,6, Karsten Haustein6, Friederike E. L. Otto6, Feyera Hirpa7, Ruksana H. Rimi6, A. K. M. Saiful Islam8, David C. H. Wallom2, and Geert Jan van Oldenborgh1 1Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, the Netherlands 2Oxford e-Research Centre, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 3Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands 4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA 5Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, the Netherlands 6Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Oxford, UK 7School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 8Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh Correspondence: Sjoukje Philip ([email protected]) and Geert Jan van Oldenborgh ([email protected]) Received: 10 July 2018 – Discussion started: 23 July 2018 Revised: 14 February 2019 – Accepted: 14 February 2019 – Published: 13 March 2019 Abstract. In August 2017 Bangladesh faced one of its worst change in discharge towards higher values is somewhat less river flooding events in recent history. This paper presents, uncertain than in precipitation, but the 95 % confidence inter- for the first time, an attribution of this precipitation-induced vals still encompass no change in risk.
    [Show full text]
  • Major Floods and Tropical Cyclones Over Bangladesh: Clustering from ENSO Timescales
    atmosphere Article Major Floods and Tropical Cyclones over Bangladesh: Clustering from ENSO Timescales Md Wahiduzzaman Institute for Climate and Application Research, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210000, China; [email protected] Abstract: The present study analyzed major floods and tropical cyclones (TCs) over Bangladesh on El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) timescales. The geographical location, low and almost flat topography have introduced Bangladesh as one of the most vulnerable countries of the world. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to the extreme hazard events like floods and cyclones which are impacted by ENSO. ENSO is mainly a tropical event, but its impact is global. El Niño (La Niña) represents the warm (cold) phase of the ENSO cycle. Rainfall and cyclonic disturbances data have been used for the period of 70 years (1948–2017) and compared with the corresponding observations of the Southern Oscillation Index. Result shows that major flood events occurred during the monsoon period, and most of them are during the La Niña condition, consistent with the historical archives of flood events in Bangladesh. Synoptic conditions of these events are well matched during La Niña condition. On the other hand, the major TC cases are in the period of either pre-monsoon or post-monsoon season. The pre-monsoon cases are under neutral (developing La Niña) or El Niño and the post-monsoon cases are under La Niña, consistent with climatology studies that La Niña is favorable to have more intense TCs over the Bay of Bengal. Citation: Wahiduzzaman, M. Major Keywords: flood; tropical cyclone; El Niño Southern Oscillation; Bangladesh Floods and Tropical Cyclones over Bangladesh: Clustering from ENSO Timescales.
    [Show full text]
  • The Costs of Living with Floods in the Jamuna Floodplain in Bangladesh
    water Article The Costs of Living with Floods in the Jamuna Floodplain in Bangladesh Md Ruknul Ferdous 1,2,* , Anna Wesselink 1, Luigia Brandimarte 3, Kymo Slager 4, Margreet Zwarteveen 1,2 and Giuliano Di Baldassarre 1,5,6 1 Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands; [email protected] (A.W.); [email protected] (M.Z.); [email protected] (G.D.B.) 2 Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands 3 Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] 4 Deltares, 2600 MH Delft, The Netherlands; [email protected] 5 Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden 6 Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science, CNDS, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 25 April 2019; Accepted: 10 June 2019; Published: 13 June 2019 Abstract: Bangladeshi people use multiple strategies to live with flooding events and associated riverbank erosion. They relocate, evacuate their homes temporarily, change cropping patterns, and supplement their income from migrating household members. In this way, they can reduce the negative impact of floods on their livelihoods. However, these societal responses also have negative outcomes, such as impoverishment. This research collects quantitative household data and analyzes changes of livelihood conditions over recent decades in a large floodplain area in north-west Bangladesh. It is found that while residents cope with flooding events, they do not achieve successful adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh Floods in Bangladesh: a Shift from Disaster Management to Wards Disaster Preparedness
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by IDS OpenDocs Case Study 3: Bangladesh Floods in Bangladesh: A Shift from Disaster Management To wards Disaster Preparedness Dwijendra Lal Mallick, Atiq Rahman, Mozaharul Alam, Abu Saleh Md Juel, Azra N. Ahmad and Sarder Shafiqul Alam 1 Introduction devastating floods, which gives an early indication There has been an overwhelming understanding and of increasing natural calamities as well as supporting acceptance by the vast majority of the scientific the latest International Panel on Climate Change community that climate change is a reality, the impacts (IPCC) observation that frequency of extreme events of which are likely to be far-reaching, affecting mostly like floods will increase in the future. the poor and vulnerable communities with least This case study focuses on recent floods that capacity and resource endowments. Mitigation and affected the country and the responses of the adaptation are two essential responses to long-term country to mitigate flood risk. It also describes how processes for addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) of the emissions and reduction of climate change impacts, government of Bangladesh takes into consideration respectively (Rahman and Mallick 2004). These will the real needs and priorities of the community while require greater levels of scientific understanding and formulating and implementing programmes to technology transfer as well as social and humanitarian enhance flood preparedness. The country report considerations and responses. However, local has been prepared based on both secondary and communities are adapting with the changes in and limited primary information collected from the around them.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case Study of Climate Change and Flooding in Bangladesh Floods in the World Floods in Asia Introduction-Bangladesh
    A case study of climate change and flooding in Bangladesh Floods in the world Floods in Asia Introduction-Bangladesh • Among the countries that are the worst affected by climate change • Frequent natural disasters, loss of life, damage to infrastructure and economic assets, impacts on lives and livelihoods • Floods, tropical cyclones, storm surges and droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in the coming years • Lies in the delta of three of the largest rivers in the world – the Brahmaputra, the Ganges and the Meghna • Mostly low and flat topography, susceptible to river and rainwater flooding • More than 50 million of people still live in poverty • Many people live in remote or ecologically fragile parts of the country, such as river islands • Approximately one quarter of the country inundated each year • The poorest and most vulnerable living in the exposed areas suffer the most Areas vulnerable to flooding The flood plain area of the Meghna River • Ideal case for examining relationship between the climate change, hazard and socio-economic vulnerability • One of the highest flood hazard area in the world • One of the poorest and the most flood-prone areas of Bangladesh • Inhabited with more than four hundred thousand people • Residents mostly farmers (farming rice, wheat, vegetables, oil seeds) • Heavy monsoon rainfall generates excessive flows in the rivers and causes floods almost every year • Suffered from devastating floods over the past 20 years in 1988, 1996, 1998 and 2004 Meghna river flood plain area Socio-economic
    [Show full text]
  • Societal Impacts and Vulnerability to Floods in Bangladesh and Nepal
    Weather and Climate Extremes ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎ Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Weather and Climate Extremes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wace Societal impacts and vulnerability to floods in Bangladesh and Nepal Tanvir H. Dewan n,1 IUBAT – International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, 4 Embankment Drive Road, Uttara Model Town, Sector 10, Dhaka 1230, Bangladesh article info abstract Article history: Bangladesh and Nepal lie between the Himalayas and low-lying coasts of the Bay of Bengal and are Received 9 April 2014 traversed by hundreds of rivers and tributaries. Historical data shows that, since 1970, the scale, intensity Accepted 30 November 2014 and duration of floods have increased in Bangladesh and Nepal, causing grave human suffering; disruptions in normal life and activity, damages of infrastructure, crops and agricultural land with Keywords: severe impacts on the economy. Bangladesh is affected by torrential rain, glacier melt, upstream water Flood vulnerability flow and tidal surges. In 1988, Bangladesh experienced one of the most severe floods of the twentieth Flood impact century which aroused significant concern internationally and triggered the Bangladesh Action Plan for Flood coping behavior Flood Control. The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has so far constructed a number of flood shelters Indigenous practices and carried out 482 water and flood control projects involving flood protection embankments, drainage Climate change channels, sluice gates and regulators on different rivers and canals. These also provided safety measures against inundation by tidal waves, storm-surges and flooding. The Terai region of Nepal is highly prone to hydrological risks including torrential rain, floods, glaciers resulting in erosion and landslides.
    [Show full text]
  • Discourse of Flood Management Approaches and Policies in Bangladesh: Mapping the Changes, Drivers, and Actors
    water Article Discourse of Flood Management Approaches and Policies in Bangladesh: Mapping the Changes, Drivers, and Actors C. Emdad Haque 1,*, M. Abul Kalam Azad 1,2 and Mahed-Ul-Islam Choudhury 1,3 1 Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2M6, Canada; [email protected] (M.A.K.A.); [email protected] (M.-U.-I.C.) 2 Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh 3 Department of Sociology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-204-474-8375 Received: 21 October 2019; Accepted: 12 December 2019; Published: 16 December 2019 Abstract: The fundamental processes of policy shifts emphasize how policy problems emerge and how policy decisions are made to overcome previous shortcomings. In Bangladesh, flood management policies may also have been driven by policy failures and flood-disaster events. In this context, we examined how policy shifts occurred in the country from 1947 to 2019 in areas of water management and flood prevention, control, and risk mitigation. To understand the nature of these policy shifts, we examined the evolutionary processes of flood management policies, the associated drivers, and the roles of key actors. Our findings reveal that policy transitions were influenced primarily by the predominance of the structural intervention paradigm and by catastrophic flood events. Such transitions were nonlinear due to multiple interest groups who functioned as contributors to, as well as barriers against, flood prevention policies. Policy debates over environmental concerns helped bring about a shift from a primary focus on structural intervention to a mixed approach incorporating various nonstructural interventions.
    [Show full text]
  • Extended-Range Probabilistic Forecasts of Ganges and Brahmaputra Floods in Bangladesh
    EXTENDED-RANGE PROBABILISTIC FORECASTS OF GANGES AND BRAHMAPUTRA FLOODS IN BANGLADESH BY PETER J. WEBSTER , JUN JIAN , THOMAS M. HO P SON , CARLOS D. HOYOS , PAULA A. AGU D ELO , HAI -RU CHANG , JU D ITH A. CURRY , ROBERT L. GROSSMAN , TIMOTHY N. PALMER , AN D A. R. SUBBIAH A new ensemble flood prediction scheme, with skill to 10 to 15 days, allowed people along the Brahmaputra to evacuate well in advance of floods in 2007/08. any of the largest rivers on the planet emanate from the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas (Fig. 1a), fed by glacial and snow M melting and monsoon rainfall. Nearly 25% of the global popu- lation reside in the vast agrarian societies in the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Irrawaddy, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Indus river basins, each of which is subject to periods of widespread and long-lived flooding. Flooding remains the greatest cause of death and destruc- tion in the developing world, leading to catastrophic loss of life and property. While almost every government in Asia has made substantial progress over the past two decades in saving the lives of victims of slow-onset flood disasters, such events remain relentlessly impoverishing. In India alone, an average 6 million hectares (ha) of land (approximately equivalent to the size of Texas) is inundated each year, affecting 35–40 million people (Dhar and Nandargi 2000; CWC 2008). Because the flooding occurs in the fertile flood plains of major rivers, the loss in agricultural inputs (seed, fertilizer, and pesticides) alone costs in excess of 1 billion U.S. dollars (USD; hence- forth all costs will be given in USD) in an average flood or drought event.
    [Show full text]
  • What Are the Impacts of Deforestation in the Himalayas on Flooding in the Lowlands? Rethinking an Old Paradigm
    0982 – B2 (Revised) What are the impacts of deforestation in the Himalayas on flooding in the lowlands? Rethinking an old paradigm Thomas Hofer Forestry Officer (Sustainable Mountain Development and Conservation) International Year of Mountains Coordination Unit Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Every year during the monsoon season the whole Himalayan region appears in the world’s headlines because of disastrous flooding in the plains of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. It is often stated that the peasants of the Himalayas are to blame, as it is deforestation in these mountains that leads to devastating floods, particularly in Bangladesh. The validity of this paradigm has been increasingly questioned, mainly in the scientific community. This paper presents new evidences resulting from research activities carried out over the last two decades in the whole Himalayan region. In particular, the paper discusses a project that studied floods in Bangladesh in the context of highland-lowland interactions. A methodology is presented which allows to estimate the potential hydrological contribution from 13 defined sub-catchments in the Ganges- Brahmaputra-Meghna basin and the relevance of it for the hydrological processes in Bangladesh. The hydrological impacts of mountain deforestation are a question of scale. Man-induced ecological changes in the Himalayas can be proven in specific examples at the small-scale level. However, at the large scale of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna system it has not been possible to find a significant correlation between human activities in the Himalayas and floods in Bangladesh.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh: Floods
    Appeal No. MDRBD002 BANGLADESH: Operations Update no.3 21 August 2007 Glide no.FF-2007-000080-BGD FLOODS The Federation’s mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are active in 185 countries. In Brief Operations Update no. 03; Period covered: 09 August to 20 August 2007; Appeal target: CHF 7,113,118 (USD 5,907,905 OR EUR 4,310,980); Appeal coverage: 13%; Outstanding needs: CHF 6,201,080 (USD 5,150,399 or EUR 3,758,230); (Click here for the attached Donor Response List and here for the live list on the Federation website) Appeal history: • Emergency appeal launched on 3 July 2007 for CHF 842,257 (USD 684,762 or EUR 510,459) for six months to assist 133,255 beneficiaries. • The Emergency appeal was revised, due to deteriorating flooding situation in the country, on 16 August 2007 for CHF 7,113,118 for eight months to assist 1,200,000 beneficiaries. • Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) allocated on 20 June 2007 to assist 10,000 families: CHF 250,000 (USD 203,252 or EUR 150,875) Operational Summary: The suffering of the population affected by the recent floods in Bangladesh has been rising, even as floodwaters recede in some parts of the country. According to latest government figures, 370 deaths have been reported so far, and approximately 2.3 million families (10.6 million people) are affected across the country. Thousands of people have been marooned and the receding floodwaters are leaving thousands more infected with water-borne diseases.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh & the Surging
    BANGLADESH & THE SURGING SEA A Vulnerability Assessment with Projections for Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Risk This page intentionally blank BANGLADESH & THE SURGING SEA A Vulnerability Assessment with Projections for Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Risk ABOUT CLIMATE CENTRAL Climate Central surveys and conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public of key findings. Our scientists publish and our journalists report on climate science, energy, sea level rise, wildfires, drought, and related topics. Climate Central is not an advocacy organization. We do not lobby, and we do not support any specific legislation, policy or bill. Climate Central is a qualified 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Climate Central scientists publish peer-reviewed research on climate science; energy; impacts such as sea level rise; climate attribution and more. Our work is not confined to scientific journals. We investigate and synthesize weather and climate data and science to equip local communities and media with the tools they need. February 2017 Princeton: One Palmer Square, Suite 330 Princeton, NJ 08542 Phone: +1 609 924-3800 Toll Free: +1 877 4-CLI-SCI / +1 (877 425-4724) www.climatecentral.org 2 BANGLADESH AND THE SURGING SEA REPORT AUTHORS BEN STRAUSS, PhD, Lead Vice President for Sea Level Rise and Climate Impacts, Climate Central Dr. Strauss is the Vice President for Sea Level Rise and Climate Impacts at Climate Central. He has published multiple scientific papers on sea level rise, testified before the U.S. Senate, and led development of the SurgingSeas.org coastal flood risk tool, leading to front-page coverage in the New York Times and Washington Post, appearances on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS and NPR national programming.
    [Show full text]