SkillBuilder discussion Concluding and decision-making, Communicating 1. Why are these houses built on stilts? 2. How might these structures help protect against flooding? 3. What challenges could people face living in these homes during a flood?
FIGURE13 In Dhaka, homes are built on stilts to avoid the floodwaters.
Not all countries can afford property buy-backs or barriers. Bangladesh faces annual monsoon flooding, adapting with homes on raised land or stilts. The country has a flood forecasting system shared via newspapers, TV, radio, internet and email. However, Dhaka’s growing population builds on low-lying flood storage areas (see FIGURE13 ), affecting many residents. In 2024, severe rains and upstream dam releases caused major flooding in Bangladesh, affecting 5.8 million people across 11 districts. Around 500 000 were displaced, and 71 people died. The floods caused over US$1.2 billion in damage, submerging homes, roads and farmland. 9.9 SkillBuilder activity COMMUNICATING 1. Think about all the environmental, economic and social impacts of floods and/or droughts. List these impacts. 2. Using this list, create a flow diagram to illustrate how these three groups relate to, connect to and influence each other. A sample flow chart based on drought has been provided to help you get started. You can add more boxes and arrows to show how elements are connected. 3. Compare your flow diagram with the class, and add further connections.
Drought
No rain
Plants can’t grow.
Farmers’ crops die.
TOPIC9 Water in the world 307
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator