FLOODS IN BANGLADESH .2. FLOOD MITIGATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

A UNDP-funded flood policy study recommended the preparation of a National Flood Master Plan under which the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers would be embanked to provide controlled flooding on adjoining floodplain areas. Studies of river moprhology, river training techniques, mathematical modelling, and land and water management with controlled flooding are being taken up in 1990 under an IBRD-coordinated Flood Action Plan. Alternatives to the embankment strategy considered by a USAID-funded team include upstream water storage in the Himalayas, basin storage on the floodplains and draw-down of groundwater beneath floodplains to absorb excess monsoon rainfall and run-off. A UNDP-funded Agriculture Sector Review advocated continued priority for small-scale irrigation development to increase crop production rapidly in the safer dry season. There is no evidence that environmental degradation in the Himalayas of a "greenhouse'-induced rise in sea level have aggravated floods in Bangladesh. -from Author