UMEÅ UNIVERSITY Department of Social and Economic Geography

Master Program in Spatial Planning and Development

Reconstruction after Crises and Disasters, fall, 2011

Teacher: Emma Lundholm/AnnaHjälm

Assignment 2: Floods in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1996)

Submitted By: Khan

Floods in Dhaka (1996) Flooding is a natural process which, that can occur in any part of the world during the

volume of water reaches beyond the holding capacity of the drainage system. In

whatever the case flooding has a major impact on the economic, social and

environmental condition of the victim areas (Alemayehu, 2007). For the past decade

flooding was happens in different part of the world for various reasons. Flooding has

been occurring both in more developed and developing countries for the past

decades, however it was more disastrous in developing countries. The frequent

severity in flooding disaster shocks victims, public authorities, planers and insurance

companies especially in the more developed countries. Wealthy countries adopt

engineering control flooding mechanism however the experience of flooding in

Bangladesh shows the failure of this “tech- fix” and marked to shift think about the

crucial case of flooding is people rather than water (Wisner et al, 2004)

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the largest urban and high densely populated

city of the country. In September 1996 Dhaka city faced a severe flooding due to the

high local (monsoon) rainfall occurred in the built-up areas of the city. Due to the

floods city faces serious problem with both physical and economic loss (Mark, et al,

2001).

The main aim of the paper is explore the role of urbanization in relation to the

disaster and other related factors that can aggravate the hazard conditions over the

city.

Urbanization can be the expansion of urban area with the increasing pressure of

population growth over in urban areas through biological birth or in-migration from

rural to urban (UNEP, 2002). The accumulation of people, consumption pattern,

travel behavior, and economic activities have a significant impact on environmental

resources (ibid). The growth of urbanization has a correlation with income. As a

result with the increase of number of population over a limited area makes the

competition high. The gap between the rich and the poor will increase and the class

will be created (ibid). When the city expands poor people tend to settle over the

densely populated and marginal areas which can be vulnerable to some

environmental hazards like flood. The vulnerability in urbanization can be raised

from the poor administrative planning policies from concerned authorities. There are

so many causes of floods in the urban areas, the 1996 floods in Dhaka was caused by

poor inadequate existing drainage system and the lacking of their improper operation

and maintenance system. So the main cause of the floods was blockages of the

drainage system. A large number of poly bags and garbage jam the drainage system.

Other causes related to flooding were identified by the Dhaka Water Supply and

Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is; unplanned urbanization, rapid expansion of the

urban areas, many drainage systems are blocked by unauthorized construction, lack

of co-ordination among different organizations are some of them (Mark et al, 2001).

Due to the flood about 65 people have been died and 5 million people are affected due

to the floods (CNN, 1996). As we can see earlier urbanization can be accompanied by

the growth of population over a specific area. This growth of population pressure

makes the lands expensive and it expands the size as well this expansion can

aggravate land degradation The main problem of Dhaka is also environmental

degradation no forest covers at list to minimize the runoff. Government is taken

serious steps regarding to these issues, and to reduce the effect of natural hazards on

a society. Starting a project in 1996 to tackle down the effects of flooding; Flood

control, Drainage and Irrigation (FCDI).The other problem in relation to

urbanization is the concentration of people on a specific place increase the intensity

of the disaster. On the other hand urbanization is important for the introduction of

new technologies, industries and the like but it should develop with planning to

reduce vulnerability.

Dhaka needs a comprehensive planning policy on land use and planning early

warning system. At this time, Dhaka has to do more on planning rather than the

other social related urbanization problems which is associated with its current

problem to minimize the effects of natural disaster in the future.

References

o Alemayehu Demessie D. (2007); Assessment of flood risk in Dire Dawa

town, eastern Ethiopia, using GIS; Addis Ababa university online

available at:

<http://etd.aau.edu.et/dspace/bitstream/123456789/1660/1/DANIEL

%20ALEMAYEHU.pdf>

o CNN, (1996). Flooding takes heavy toll in China, India and

Bangladesh. Online available at: < http://articles.cnn.com/1996-07-

26/world/9607_26_china.bang.floods_1_monsoon-floods-flood-

victims-severe-floods?_s=PM:WORLD > Accessed on 2012-01-16

o Mark, O., Apirumanekul, C. (2001) Modelling of Urban Flooding in

Dhaka City. 4th DHI software Conference. Online available at:

<http://www.dhigroup.com/upload/publications/mouse/Apirumaneku

l_Modelling_of_Urban.pdf >

o UNEP (2002): Global environmental outlook 3 report, State of the

environment and policy retrospective: 1972–2002 online available at:

<http://www.unep.org/geo/geo3/english/pdfs/chapter2-8_urban.pdf>

o Wisner B., Blaikie P., Cannon T. & Ian D. (2004): At Risk, Natural

Disaster Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disaster (2nd), New

York; Routledge