Country Presentation on

Disaster Risk Reduction Aspects of Trans-

boundary floods in Bangladesh

Presented by
Md. Omar Faruq
Bangladesh Meteorological Department
Geographical location of Bangladesh
 Basic information
Position : 20.57N-26.63N & 88.02E-92.68E
Area : 1,47,570 square km
Population: About160 million
Language : Bengali
Capital : Dhaka
Currency : Taka
Time zone: +6hours(UTC)
 General Climate
 Bangladesh is a deltaic country located at the lower part of the
basins of the three mighty rivers–The Ganges, the Brahmaputra
and the Meghna.

 Bangladesh is a  tropical monsoon type climate with a hot and

humid summer from March to April.
 Relatively cooler monsoon season from June to September, and a 
dry winter from December to February.

 In general, maximum summer temperatures range between 32°C

and 40°C or more. April is the warmest month in most parts of the
country. January is the coldest month, when the average
temperature for most of the country is about 12°C .

 Highest maximum is 45.1 degree centigrade in 1972 at Rajshahi,

Lowest minimum is 2.8 degree centigrade in 1968 at Srimangol
and maximum rainfall 590mm in 15 June, 2001 at Sandwip.
RAINFALL DISTRIBUTION OVER
BANGLADESH IN MONSOON
Monthly Distribution of Rainfall over Bangladesh
Seasonal Distribution of Rainfall over Bangladesh
 HAZARDS IN BANGLADESH 
Bangladesh is one of the world’s most  vulnerable 
countries to natural hazards and disasters e.g.  
Floods, River erosion, Cyclones, Droughts, Tornadoes, 
Cold waves, Earthquakes, Water logging, Arsenic 
contamination, Salinity intrusion etc.
 
 Its  geographical  location  makes  it  subject  to  annual  
monsoon  floods  and  cyclones, but there are also
  a number of other risks the country has to cope with. 
As it is considered to be  the  country  most  affected  
by  climate  change,  the  risk  is  increasing  for  major  
Hydro meteorological  disasters  to  occur. 

 Widespread  poverty  and  an  extremely  high   
Population density add to the country’s vulnerability 
to disasters.
 Floods in Bangladesh

 Bangladesh is a flood prone country to due to being situated

on the Ganges Delta and the many distributaries flowing into
the Bay of Bengal.

 Floodplain contains 270 perennial rivers, of which 56 originate

outside the country (Tibet, Bhutan, India and Nepal).

 Melt water from the Himalayas is also a significant input.

The convectional rainfall of the monsoon is added to by relief

rainfall caused by the Himalayas & other catchment areas.
 Floods in Bangladesh (Continue)
 Flooding normally occurs during the monsoon season from
June to September.
 The floodwaters bring alluvial sediment which makes the
delta and floodplains very fertile but frequently is severe
causing loss of life and population suffer.
 Regular river floods affect 20% of the country increasing
up to 68% in extreme years. 
 The floods of 1988,1998 and 2004 were particularly 
catastrophic, resulting in large-scale destruction and
  loss of lives. 
 Approximately 37%, 43%, 52% and 68% of the country is inun
dated with  floods  of  return  periods  of  
10,  20,  50  and  100  years  respectively.
 Floods in Bangladesh (Continue)

 The 1988 flood affected about the two-third area of the country.
 
 The 1998 flood  alone  caused  1,100  deaths,  rendered  30  million  
people  homeless, damaged 500,000 homes and caused heavy loss 
to infrastructure. 

 The 1998flood lasted for 65 days from July 12 to September 14 and
  affected about 67% area of the country.
 
 This devastating flood had an enormous impact on the national 
economy, in addition to causing hardships for people, and disrupting 
livelihood systems in urban and rural areas.
 Floods in Bangladesh (Continue)

 In the year 2000, Bangladesh faced an unusual flood over its 
usually flood free south western plain, which also caused loss
  of life and massive damage to  property. 

  In  2004,  floods  inundated  about  38%  of  the  country20, 
 747people lost their lives.
 
 About 2500 kilometres of embankment were damaged.
 
 Seventy four primary school buildings were washed away. This
 flood caused economic loss of about US$ 2200 Million. 

 Floods continue to be major hazards in Bangladesh.
 
 Types of flood in Bangladesh
Five main types of natural floods in Bangladesh
 River flood (normal bank floods from the major rivers
Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna)-River floods occur between
May and September as a result of heavy regional storms or
melting of the Himalayan snowpacks .
 Rainfall flood (Monsoon flood)-Rainfall floods result from
localized precipitation during the monsoon rains, mostly in low-
lying areas.
 Flash flood -Flash floods carry a heavy sediment load, raising
the level of river beds, and are caused by heavy monsoon rains
falling on mountains and hill next to the floodplain .
 Tidal Flood and
 Storm surge flood -Cyclonic floods are sea floods and occur
when cyclones from the Bay of Bengal create a storm surge
which moves inland .
Flood situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh- The
land of rivers
58
Bangladeshis a land  of  rivers. So many rivers have
flowed through the country making it a beautiful water
land. The beauty of the rivers of  Bangladeshis like a
dream. The main rivers are Padma, Meghna
Brahmaputra and Jamuna.
 Trans-boundary Rivers

A Trans-boundary river is a river that crosses at least

one political border, either a border within a nation or
an international boundary. There are presently some
260 trans boundary river basins around the world,
covering 45% of the land surface of the earth.
 Trans-boundary Rivers in Bangladesh
• Bangladesh is traversed with the greatest number of
these rivers, almost exclusively trans international. A
total of 58 major rivers of Bangladesh have entered the
country either from India or from Myanmar. These 58
trans-boundary rivers are very significant as they carry a
lot of sediments to help land accretion in the estuarine
region but also raise riverbeds to cause floods.
• While rainfall indicators allow insights into how climatic
patterns may change over time, data on river flows are
arguably a more important indicator of the availability of
irrigation water. River flows are affected by seasonal
variations of rainfall, temperatures and characteristics of
basins and catchment areas.
Trans-boundary River Basin
 Flood and Geo-physical Settings of Bangladesh

Bangladesh rivers receive runoff from a catchment of 1.72

million sq. km, around 12 times its land area

Brahmaputra Basin
552,000 sq.km
CHINA

BHUTAN
INDIA

Ganges Basin
1,087,000 sq.km

INDIA

BANGLADESH
Meghna Basin
82,000 sq.km

BAY OF BENGAL
 Solutions to the flood hazard
Various ideas have been put forward to reduce flooding and
vulnerability to catastrophic events in Bangladesh:

 Surveying of all main rivers and flood areas.

 Raising embankments on bank of the major rivers.
Upgrading embankments on the bank of the rivers.
 Controlled flooding where land, divided into compartments,
can receive flood waters through sluice gates .
 Set up Coastal embankments and polders.
 Early warning is a key element of disaster risk reduction.
 Flood forecasting with the aim of increasing radar stations in
the hills and developing microwave links to a flood
forecasting centre.
 Preparedness and hazard(Flood) monitoring
 Bangladesh Water  Development  Board  (BWDB)    has  a  
specialized unit  for  flood  forecasting  and  warning  
named  ‘Flood  Forecasting  and  Warning  Centre’  (FFWC). 
 
 The  centre  produces  forecasting  reports  based  on
data  collected from  the  52 field  stations  and GIS  based for
ecasting  models from  May  to  October.
  
 FFWC  can  make  72  hours  flood  forecasts  transmitted  to  
governmental  administrative, NGOs and media.
 Preparedness and hazard(Flood) monitoring (Continue)

 In the Disaster Management Information Centre (DMIC, under
the DMB) all relevant information is collected and disseminated.
 
 One of  their tasks is also the preparation of  regular bulletins (
Web portal) informing about the latest state of affairs in any di
saster.

 The  Community Based  Flood  Information System (CFIS)  is 
 an  innovative initiative, piloted in the  remote  flood  prone  
communities,  using  mobile  phones  to  disseminate  flood 
  forecasting messages  to  the  local  population.  
 
Bangladesh is one of the disaster prone countries of the world,
with extremely limited resources, its real development is not
possible without the integration of disaster mitigation
programms.

Our planning thrust is therefore diverted towards disaster

management as a major consideration in regional development
planning.

Bangladesh is striving hard to establish an elaborate and

experienced disaster management system from national down to
community level to mitigate the effects of disasters.

Being aware of the limitations and the vulnerability of the

country to natural disaster, the Government of Bangladesh has
been making continuous efforts to make Bangladesh a part of
safer world in the 21st century and seek help of development
partners.
Thanks for listening