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Need to know ~ Places
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Why current?
2020-12-26
This year, the densely populated country of Bangladesh, located in South Asia, experienced some of the worst flooding in decades. Just a few weeks into monsoon season, about a quarter of the country was underwater. Hundreds of people had lost their lives. Over a million homes were damaged, and hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded.
Bangladesh actually depends on yearly flooding. The influx of water brings life and nourishment. Some 230 rivers flow through the country, carrying not only water but also billions of tons of fertile soil to cultivated lands. But the life-giving waters are now becoming destructive deluges, mainly as a result of climate change.
As the climate crisis barrels ahead, Bangladesh is bound to get hit harder each year. Rising sea levels and more intense storms will cause more flooding. Larger areas of farm land will be destroyed, and production of certain staple crops like rice and wheat will decline significantly. With 80% of Bangladesh located within a flood plain, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, says that her country will suffer some of the worst effects of rising sea levels – a threat that she calls a “planetary emergency.”
Attempts by the government to be ready for the 2020 monsoon season were thwarted by a cyclone that ravaged the coast of Bangladesh in May. The coronavirus pandemic, as well as structural damage resulting from previous storms, also slowed efforts. 200,000 people are being displaced each year, as coastal communities face increasingly destructive flooding events. Bangladesh as a whole is threatened, and some experts say that this delta nation may disappear altogether by the end of the century.
More about Bangladesh
- Population: 164,689,383
- The official language of Bangladesh is Bengali.
- The country is culturally unified. 98% of the population speaks Bengali and is of the Bengali ethnic group. 90% of people in Bangladesh are Muslim (the rest are mostly Hindu).
- The capital of Bangladesh is the huge city of Dhaka; its metro population is just over 21 million. Dhaka is famous for its old architecture. It is home to a number of splendid mosques, earning it the nickname, “City of Mosques.”
- Bangladesh shares borders with India and Myanmar.
- The country is known for its fabric industry. There are thousands of factories producing garments for major clothing labels around the world. In fact, 80% of exports from Bangladesh are connected to the clothing industry. Most workers in this sector are women. Despite the fact that garment manufacturing is a vital part of the country’s economy, working conditions are substandard. Employees work long hours in squalid environments for very little pay. Safety precautions to protect workers who use dangerous machinery are often not adhered to by managers. There have been reports of child labor in Bangladesh’s garment industry, although the situation has improved. (Child labor remains a problem in some of the country’s other industries, though.)
- Although Bangladesh has seen some growth in prosperity overall, the wealth gap is huge, and poverty is widespread. Almost 30% of the country’s population lives below the poverty line.
- Most Bangladeshis depend on farming for their livelihood. Some of the major crops include sugar cane, wheat, rice, and jute (a plant whose fibers are used to produce tough strands that can be woven into various materials).
- Bangladesh has six seasons: summer (April to June, dry and very warm) , the monsoon (June to August, brings 85% of the year’s rainfall), autumn (August to October, less humid and a bit cooler), late autumn (October to December, much cooler), winter (December to February, the coolest and calmest time of the year), and spring (February to April. occasional storms, gradually warming temperatures).
- Much of Bangladesh lies on an enormous river delta, called the Bengal Delta. (What’s a delta, you ask? The flow of a river slows down as it nears a large body of water. At that point, the river deposits soil and sediment that it picked up during its flow. Often so much sediment is left at the mouth of the river that it cannot be washed away. Instead, it accumulates and forms land. This land is called a delta. Some deltas are large enough for people to settle on.) Two great Himalayan rivers – the Ganges and the Brahmaputra – flow into the Bengal Delta. The soil is extremely fertile and therefore, as is the case with most river deltas, many people have settled there over the centuries. In fact, it’s one of the most densely populated regions on Earth.
- The Sundarbans, one of the world’s most magnificent mangrove forests, is located on the delta, too. This area is home to diverse wildlife, including Bengal tigers, dolphins, monitor lizards, monkeys, and a large number of bird species.
Source: Imtiaz, Aysha, BBC, “The Nation Learning to Embrace Flooding,” https://www.bbc.com/bangladesh-the-devastating-floods-essential-for-life, December 1, 2020; NASA Earth Observatory, “Intense Flooding in Bangladesh,” https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/intense-flooding-in-bangladesh, July 25, 2020; Wander Wisdom, “10 Eye-Opening Facts About Bangladesh,” https://wanderwisdom.com/10-Eye-Opening-Facts-about-Bangladesh, December 3, 2018; Compassion.com, “Facts About Bangladesh: A Country Rich in Folklore and Culture,” https://blog.compassion.com/fun-facts-about-bangladesh, August 3, 2020; Lima, Jannatul Ferdous, globalstorybook.org, “11 Amazing Facts About Bangladesh,” https://globalstorybook.org/11-amazing-fact-bangladesh/