Monsoon in Bangladesh
Then, I thought I was making out the vague form of a river, a large muddy snake with just enough flow to make a difference with the flooded areas he was crossing ; it was spanned by a long green bridge, useless and surrealistic, part of it flooded and foaming like a dam...Alexandre Frater about the Brahmapoutre river
|
In the heart of the gulf of Bengal, the monsoon reveals its full nature and its darker side. Once more, from the providential advent to the devastating flood, I will experience all aspects of the monsoon in order to better understand how it conditions the life of so many people. Knee deep in water, in Bangladesh, I will thus share the nomadism of millions of people enduring the whims of water, before heading East, where flows another mythic river.
|
|
It is in Bangladesh, in the delta formed by three big monsters, the Gange, the Brahmapoutre and the Meghna rivers, that the monsoon is the most cruel : relief of the landscape, instability of the river beds, political feuds, explosive demography... Many reasons can explain the terrible damage resulting from flood and typhoon. And as if it were not enough to justify its membership to the club of extremes, Bangladesh is regularly victim of drought, since the flow of rivers is too weak off the monsoon season.
Floods: in 1988, 54% of the country was flooded for a long time, it destroyed 20% of the harvest and killed 1,200 persons.
Typhoons: in may 1985 17,000 persons drowned, it was worse in April 1991, with 300,000 deaths.
