1999 Bangladesh floods

1999 Bangladesh Floods, although not as serious as the 1998 floods, still very dangerous and costly. There are many floods in Bangladesh mainly because the area is on average only 1 meter above sea level. These floods were between July and September. This caused a large amount of deaths and many people were left homeless. Also there was a lot of damage which had to be paid for by the use of aid from MEDC's. The entire flood lasted approximately 65 days.

 Causes

The main causes of the floods was the large amount of rainfall, melting snow from the snow caps of the Himalayas and a lot more heavy rainfall from El Nino. These all increased the amount of surface water there was and increased the volume of water in two main rivers, which are very large and connect. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra both had more than the normal amount of water that they could carry and so were overflowing and flooding.
There are also a number of human causes towards the flooding of Bangladesh. These consist of large amounts of deforestation and over farming. Deforestation means that there are no trees to suck up any rainwater for growth, so the water just continues to build up and travel down the hill. Over farming ruins the soil and so water just goes straight though it and doesn't soak into the ground for groundwater. This means that the maximum amount of surface water can travel down the hills and tributaries.
Also Bangladesh itself in total is very poor country therefore it can't afford the optimum defence against flooding or rescue services to help any possible survivors.

 Consequence

Naturally the main Consequence is death by a number of factors. These factors consist of mainly drowning, crushed by falling objects, and there's a lot of death by diseases, such as Typhoid and Cholera, which come from contaminated water full of dead bodies of animals and people, which quickly spreads the disease. The total deaths was about 918. 30 million people were made homeless. 100,000 square kilometres of land (mainly agricultural)was destroyed. 400 factories closed which decreased Bangladesh's production rate by 20%. Many roads and bridges were destroyed, making communications, aid and transport very difficult. All in all the total damage cost was $880 million (US $). $350 billion for immediate damage and aid, and then a further $530 million for later.

 Solutions

A number of solutions that could be made for later floods, if Bangladesh could afford them would consist of moats, levées, dams, reservoirs, barriers and dredging, which is increasing the total volume of the river so it can carry more water. Also they could spend some money reinforcing buildings and getting a well trained rescue team.