South Asia Floods, 2007

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South Asia, 2007

Causes

  • Physical:
  • Heavy rainfall, over 190mm in 24 hours and 900 in total for the month
  • It was monsoon season, so the rain fell suddenly after a dry and warm summer
  • The ground was saturated very quickly and therefore water just ran off the surface into the river
  • Human:
  • Urbanisation in Nepal and the Himalayas meant less rain was intercepted and absorbed by vegetation, this increased the discharge
  • Growth of urban areas lead to an increase in surface run-off
  • The old earth dams collapsed which caused more flooding
  • The relief of the land was very low-lying
  • A lot of snow melted in the Himalayas during the long and hot summer

Effects

  • Social:
  • Over 2000 people died: many people chose not to evacuate because they would have to leave their land and livestock. This lead to many children drowning because they couldn't swim
  • 100,000 people caught diseases after the event
  • 110,000 homes destroyed and people were forced to move into temporary shelters
  • 4000 schools effected and 44 were destroyed, disrupting education
  • 25 million people made homeless
  • Economic:
  • Cost of flooding was $1 billion. This included damage to crops and buildings
  • Factories were closed, many major exporting businesses lost out
  • Loss of raw materials such as rice and also livestock, therefore people were unemployed to work on the fields
  • Vast amounts of roads were destroyed
  • Country and individuals debt increased, already an LEDC
  • Environmental:
  • The flood deposited fertile silt on floodplain which is good for farming
  • Rivers were polluted with sewage

Overall summary

Bangladesh is a LEDC so there is limited expenditure on flood defences or flood warning systems. People have low incomes, little savings and more than likely, no insurance, this limits their ability to recover after the event. Corrupt government officials diverted aid away from the people that need it the most, making the problem even worse. 

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