Where's All the Water?

Floods are synonymous with Bangladesh. The country is essentially a huge river delta, as three of the world’s biggest rivers -- the Padma (known as the Ganges in India), the Meghna, and the Brahmaputra -- end their journey from the Himalayas in Bangladesh. Every year, the June-to-September monsoon season brings a relief from the heat as well as 75% of the annual rainfall to Bangladesh. All of that extra water means flooding, especially in Dhaka, where overcrowding and poor sanitation have made it impossible for the water to flow out quickly. The floods in 2004 temporarily displaced more than 20 million people.

However, the flooding also enables Bangladesh to feed its 145 million people. Farmers have relied on the annual floods for centuries for planting their crops of rice, the staple food of Bangladesh. With the floods comes nutrient-rich soil; in a normal year about 30% of the land floods, becoming ideal for replanting rice seedlings. Despite a regular “hungry season” in January, Bangladesh usually just manages to produce enough rice to keep people here alive, thanks to the annual floods.

Well, it looks like that might be changing. Last year’s monsoon was remarkably dry for June, July and August. It wasn’t until September that enough rain came to enable the farmers to replant the rice crops -- but yields were much lower than those in a normal year. This year’s situation is even worse. The three big rivers are at their lowest monsoon season level in 14 years. Imams across the country are instructing their congregations to pray for rain. Meanwhile, the weather forecasters here are not expecting any major rains during the rest of the monsoon season.

That means no flooding -- and for Bangladesh, that’s as bad as too much.