Impacts of flood on Char livelihoods and its adaptation techniques by the local people

Abstract

The study showed that most of the farmers (81.81%) in char area of flood lands were affected by flood as their crops were washed away by flood water as agricultural lands (59%) were inundated in a high magnitude flood. During flood, almost 88.89% farmers pass their days having no alternative occupation, and cannot afford to meet basic needs of their family as most of the Char lands were inundated for about two or three months, resulting in no crop production during that period. People reside in roads, schools and even on the top of the roof as there was no flood shelter in the study area. Besides these, rehabilitation programs were also not sufficient. It is also revealed that siltation over agricultural land reduces its fertility and productivity. To cope with this problem, people of Char land formulated and undertaken various adaptation techniques in their own way which varies depending on their socio-economic and environmental aspects, such as education, income, occupations and living conditions, as there was no organizational support. Finally, the study recommended that the policy makers and implementers along with non-governmental organizations should take their own responsibilities focusing the devastating situation of the previous flood in the study area. Also, the farmers should grow the flood tolerant varieties of crops in the area to mitigate loss of production and to lead a sustainable life.Bangladesh J. Sci. Res. 28(2): 123-135, Dec-2015

Vulnerability to riverbank erosion in India and Bangladesh: A review for future research framework

“…Other places in Assam along the Brahmaputra River (Sharma et al, 2010) and districts like Barpeta (Khan, 2012) and Golaghat (Mili, Acharjee, & Konwar, 2013) faced destructions of road networks, educational infrastructure, homes and agricultural lands. Heavy losses in terms of crops, crop lands, homesteads, livestock and personal property were recorded in the Indian states of Assam (Dekaraja & Mahanta, 2021;Dutta et al, 2020) and Shantipur, West Bengal (Chatterjee & Mistri, 2013) and Bangladesh's Bhola , Mymensingh (Islam, Parvin, & Farukh, 2017), Satkhira, Bagerhat (Islam, 2012b) and Sirajgonj (Rabbi, Saifullah, Sheikh, Sarker, & Bhowmick, 2013) districts, Radhanagar, Bashuria (Islam, Parvin, Emu, & Kabir, 2019a) and Nolian villages (Khan, Nabia, & Rahman, 2018), Durgapasha union (Roy et al, 2017), Kazipur (Haque, 1997;Haque & Zaman, 1989), the Lower Teesta Basin (Ferdous & Mallick, 2019) and floodplains and coastal areas of Bangladesh (Islam et al, 2019b). The vulnerability of the char lands in Bangladesh was underlined by Islam, Singh, Shaheed, & Wei (2010) and Poncelet, Gemenne, Martiniello, & Bousetta (2010) where settlements, various infrastructure and most of all, agricultural lands were lost.…”

“…Another study on Malda showed that the displaced population with low levels of educational attainment found it difficult to secure a decent living (Das et al, 2017). Lower levels of schooling also obscured the ability of the people to predict or forecast riverbank erosion and its tendencies (Islam et al, 2019a) which restricted the erosion victims to prepare themselves better to face, cope and mitigate the disaster.…”

Indo-Bangladesh borderland issues in Meghalaya

“…Quite apart from the fallouts of the current COVID pandemic, the ambitious plans for a Golden Bengal ( Sonar Bangla ) have not materialised earlier (Jamwal, 2004: 13), partly due to disasters related to climate change. These include more severe floods than earlier, cyclones, riverbank erosions and landslides (Government of Bangladesh, 2009; Hossain et al, 2020: 1; Islam et al, 2015), while the risks of drought were examined by Shahid and Behrawan (2008). High population density and hazardous ecological conditions subject millions of rural Bangladeshis to destruction of their farms and livelihoods, forcing many to move (Government of Bangladesh, 2009; Kabir et al, 2018).…”

Dhaka city water logging hazards: area identification and vulnerability assessment through GIS-remote sensing techniques

“…However, the city lacks adequate retention and detention capacity of rainwater and sustainable development of the drainage system during urban planning and design (Mowla & Islam, 2013). Several studies have addressed water logging hazards and risks of south-west and south-east coastal zones, at different river basins of Bangladesh adapting mixmethod approach and GIS-remote sensing techniques (Hassan & Mahmud-ul-islam, 2014;Rahman et al, 2009;Tareq et al, 2018;Islam et al, 2020;Huda et al, 2022). However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have evaluated water logging hazards through the lens of GIS and remote sensing integrated approach and have not emphasized the contribution of rapid urbanization.…”