South Asia: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Islands of the Indian Ocean - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 253

39 inches (1 m). Should this occur, almost 30 million
people will be displaced.
Bangladesh' s government has few resources to cope
with this pending disaster. At the 2009 Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the country' s
leaders urged richer countries to take in climate refugees .
It tried to drive home the point that industrialized coun-
tries have a responsibility to help because they are
responsible for global warming in the first place.
Few if any developed countries are prone to absorb-
ing thousands of poor, uneducated, Muslim Bangladeshis.
Some Bangladeshis think that the Middle Eastern,
Muslim countries have an obligation to take them in.
Many experts hold the view that this will not be
necessary because those who lose their land will
simply move to other parts of the country , especially
the cities that are already overburdened with people.
Large numbers of people will likely cross the border
into India. India already is displeased with the num-
bersof illegal migrants from Bangladesh and has built
an 8.2-foot (2.5 m) wall along the 2,500-mile (4,100 km)
border between the two countries.
The wall is not meant to simply deter Muslim
migrants from Bangladesh. India argues that Bangladesh
is becoming increasingly militant and that it is sending
terrorist militias across the border to support insurgents
in its northeast. Because of intense population pressure
in poverty-stricken Bangladesh, the wall is unlikely to
stop cross-border movement.

magnet for more people who inhabit the adjacent river-
banks in makeshift shelters. Over half of these displaced
people are sharecroppers or rent from large landowners.
Others survive in the informal economy . Whatever system
is established can be quickly erased in a subsequent flood.
In 1972, it became policy for newly emerged chars to
revert to the government. The idea was to redistribute
these lands to the landless and poor, small farmers. How-
ever, the power of landlords, inequities in land owner-
ship, intergroup conflict, and political intrigue have
hampered the implementation of resettlement. In fact,
over half of rural householders are landless. With little
chance of participating in the larger economy , they
remain as semi-permanent clusters in the countryside or
become urban squatters.
What is being done to mitigate these yearly disasters?
In 1967, tidal gauges were installed along the coast. A Flood
Action Plan was developed in 1990. A year later, a Cyclone
Warning Service was established. However, the system was
overused and people became complacent. When warnings
of “great danger” failed to materialize on several occasions,
many people began to ignore the warnings.
T Today, , with help from the World Meteorological
Organization, Bangladesh has its own Space Research
and Remote Sensing Organization. With links to Indian
systems, it can broadcast more accurate warnings ahead
of time. In addition, concrete shelters, channels, and
embankments have been built across the country .
Unfortunately , many of these fail to hold up in the floods.
Embankments are also magnets for human habita-
tion. Impromptu settlements cling to their sides. In fact,
the right bank of the Brahmaputra has been described as
“the world' s longest linear housing development.”

W ATER, LAND USE, AND SETTLEMENT
India affects the water supply in Bangladesh. In 1974, India
installed the Farakka water diversion channel on the
Ganges (Padma in Bangladesh) near the Bangladeshi bor-
der, allowing less water to flow to Bangladesh. Bangladesh
claimed that reduction in water levels increases salinity in
the Padma River basin, thereby preventing some 35 mil-
lion people from getting irrigation water. After years of
deadlock, the two countries signed a treaty in 1996 to
share the water from the Farakka Barrage.
Instability of land and water patterns affects settle-
ment and land use patterns. As rivers sway between val-
ley walls, they assume a braided pattern separated by
small, sandy islands called chars. As river waters shift
laterally , erosion is exacerbated on the right banks and
the whole system exhibits a westerly shift. Chars disappear
and new channels are formed.
Populations move with chars, taking advantage of nat-
urally fertilized land. If a char is developed, it can act as a

Agricultural Rhythms

As in all of South Asia, the rhythm of life in Bangladesh
follows the seasons in which flooding is integral. Flood-
ing also has a spatial pattern and temporal rhythm. For
example, the Brahmaputra and Meghna rise in March
and April, fed by Himalayan snowmelt. At this time, pre-
monsoon rains occur in Assam and northeastern
Bangladesh. The Ganges rises in May . By June or July , all
rivers are swollen with monsoon rains. The Ganges
reaches its peak flow anywhere from August to October.
In terms of planting crops, there are three main sea-
sons (Figure 9-4). In addition, cropping practices are
adapted to flood conditions. For example, virtually thou-
sands of rice varieties have been planted over the centuries