Storm surge floods occur in the coastal area of Bangladesh, which consists of large estuaries, extensive tidal flats, and low-lying islands. Storm surges generated by tropical cyclones cause widespread damage to property and the loss of life in coastal area. They are not the result of rainfall but of seawater being pushed inland by the strong winds of a cyclone.75 Extensive floods particularly affect the poorest-of-the-poor in the country who lose whatever assets they have and suffer from lack of work and wages. In fact people who live in areas that regularly flood have low levels of health, nutrition and education. Floods also contribute to the concentration of landownership due to distress sale by the poor in the post-flood situation to the richer people in the community. Therefore increasing floods due to climate change are likely to increase the poverty of those already poor as well as threaten that so-called middle poor or those working class people just above the poverty line with becoming ultra-poor.76 Food supply will be problem caused by river floods; for the 1998 flood reduced agricultural production by 45%. It will also affect on rural incomes, where agriculture still employs 70% of the population. Floods very easily destroy high-yielding aman rice varieties as they are unable to grow fast enough to keep up with the increasing depth of floodwater and if the flood water rises faster than 4-5cm deep per day other rice varieties will also be lost. Monsoon vegetables also die when under water.77 Flooding increases the risk of diseases by extending the range of vectors such as mosquitoes, bacteria and other pathogens as well as by washing agricultural pesticides into drinking water. Leading to water-borne diseases including cholera and the diarrhoeal diseases caused by organisms such as Giardia, Salellamon and Cryptosporidium , as well as chemical poisoning. A recent study found that extreme climatic conditions enable the water living cholera bacteria Vibrio cholerae to rapidly multiply and spread more easily. Floods caused by heavy monsoon rain can contaminate drinking water with the cholera 75
Ibid
76
Please visit, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/55/21055658.pdf, last accessed on 8.10.10.
77
Ibid