synoptic

Deltaic sedimentation

• Deltaic sedimentation creates low-lying land - high exposure to waterborne diseases.

• Bangladesh’s Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta is formed by huge sediment deposition

• Creates low-lying, flat coastal landscapes which flood easily. This allows cholera and diarrhoea disease to spread when water becomes contaminated.

• 4-5m above sea level

• 110,000 hectares of crops destroyed

• 700,000 affected by diarrhoea and dehydration

• 4500 ill due to contaminated water

• Millions of water-purification tablets

Tidal flooding on chars

• chars are unstable, newly deposited sediment islands.

• Communities living on chars have no permanent sanitisation, so tidal flooding mixes waste with drinking water, acceleration contagious diffusion of gastrointestinal diseases.

• Informal settlements

• 700,000 affected by diarrhoea and dehydration

• 4-7% of pop (6.5-12 million people) live on Chars

• Chars cover 5-10% of the country’s total land area.

• Highly vulnerable to extreme flooding and riverbank erosion

• Extra - river Ganges often clogged with silt from Himalayas sediment loads. - raising river bed and too poor to constantly dredge

Coastal accretion and erosion forces

• Bangladeshs delta landscape is constantly shifting - some areas accrete and others erode.

• Forces communities to relocation repeatedly, often into crowded settlements with poor sanitation, increasing the spread of respiratory and waterborne diseases.

• 750,000 homes waterlogged

• 1900+ schools affected, fully or partially.

• Bangladesh gov - coordinated reconstruction through agencies like the LGED and the Disaster Management Bureau. - multipurpose flood shelters and embankment rehabilitation

• World bank - large scale flood recovery and resilience projects - building 79 multipurpose flood shelters

• LoGIC programme - climate smart infrastructure - local flood-resilient structures, warning towers and signal systems, community even protective works.

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