Transboundary Data Sharing Helps Bangladesh Prepare for Floods

Bangladesh is better prepared to deal with floods caused by heavy monsoon rains, thanks to river water level updates from India and China.

Houses have been flooded in Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, and people are relocating
[image by: Serajul Islam]

As the monsoons begin, some parts of Bangladesh are already flooded, and the Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers are expected to burst their banks sooner rather than later. But the people of Bangladesh are now more aware of potential disasters, thanks to improved flood forecasting and monitoring systems.

“We made a forecast for the ongoing flood in the Surma-Kushiyara basin prior to June 30, and now we are forecasting that the water level in many points of Brahmaputra and Ganga might cross the danger level in the next three days,” said Sazzad Hossain, executive engineer at the Bangladesh Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC).

Data from India and China

The projections made by the centre are based on data about water flow upstream in the Brahmaputra, Ganga, Teesta, Feni and Barak – all transboundary rivers flowing in from India. The data is provided by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. More important, it is provided by meteorological offices in India and China, which gives the authorities more time to prepare, even evacuate the vulnerable residents if necessary.

Under bilateral agreements between the countries, India and China provide information twice a day during the monsoon to help Bangladesh update its flood forecasting systems. India provides data from two points on the Ganga, five on the Brahmaputra, and one each on the Teesta, Feni and Barak rivers, while China provides river flow information from three points on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet.

People living in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin are used to floods during the monsoon season. Just last year, Bangladesh experienced a severe flood due to heavy monsoon rains in the Brahmaputra basin and in 2015, 200,000 hectares of Aman paddy and 50,000 hectares of vegetable fields were inundated with floodwater, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Read more: The Third Pole

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• River Studies
• Data Management
• River Engineering
• Flood Modeling
• Flood management
• Flood damage
• Flood prediction
• Flood Risk Management
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