Hungary and Bangladesh

• Bangladesh

  A developing country in Asia frequently affected by flooding
• In 2007 flooding made 9 million people homeless and approximately 1,000 people died from drowning and waterborne diseases in Bangladesh
• Causes of flooding in Bangladesh

  • Cyclones cause coastal flooding
  • Lots of low-lying land
  • Melt water from the Himalayas
  • Heavy monsoon rains
• What Bangladesh has done to cope with flooding

  1. Building embankments

  2. Building raised flood shelters

  3. Introducing flood warning systems

  4. Emergency planning

  5. Reducing deforestation
• Bangladesh is a very poor country and so has less money to spend on flood defences than richer countries
• Most people in Bangladesh do not earn enough to pay for insurance against flooding, so when there are floods, they risk losing everything
• Short-term responses to flooding in Bangladesh

  • Food aid from the Government and other countries
  • Water purification tablets
  • People repaired embankments and helped to rescue people
  • Free seed given to farmers
• Long-term responses to flooding in Bangladesh


  • Building embankments
  • Building raised flood shelters
  • Introducing flood warning systems
  • Emergency planning
  • Dams planned
  • Reducing deforestation
• Unfortunately, many of these long-term responses are difficult to pay for and maintain, are not always successful and do not always help enough people
• In October 2010, a large river of toxic red mud flowed through areas of Hungary
• The mudflow


  Two metres high and covered an area of 40 sq. km
• One million cubic metres of industrial waste was released into the area
• Causes of the disaster in Hungary

  • The dam collapsed because of high rainfall
  • The reservoir contained industrial waste material stored from a nearby bauxite factory
  • The factory producing the waste may not have been properly maintained
• Impacts from the disaster in Hungary

  • Nine people died, 120 were injured
  • The chemicals released into the water killed fish and other wildlife
  • The pH level of the mud was high enough to cause chemical burns
  • Seven towns and around 7,000 people were affected
  • The topsoil in agricultural areas was left contaminated