About Its Water
I am full of contradictions (said Bangladesh). I have about 405 rivers declared by the Bangladesh Water Research Foundation, plus 400 other rivers. So I have around 400-800 rivers. The main rivers are Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Brahmmaputra, Shitalakkha, Ghumti and Karnafuli etc.
Seasons, including the Rainy Season
There are six traditional seasons, for we have our own Bengali months and there is a new season every two months. Today, with Climate Change, people are saying that there are three seasons: The Rainy Season (monsoon) traditionally goes from mid-June to mid-August. Our summer is before this, from mid-April to mid-June. Sharat Season is equal to Autumn; Hamontu, Winter; Boshonto, Spring.
Problems during the Rainy Season
(Bangladesh sighs, telling me I should look these things up on Google):
There are four types of flood –
- The Rainy Season floods
- Floods involving my Drainage Systems
- Also floods from the hills
- Also Coastal floods, including Cyclones etc… problems from the Sea.
What is it like during a flood? People have to move to high ground where there are Shelter Centres. The 2004 flood took a long time to recede, unfortunately. There was another one around 1991/2. Our main staple food is rice. Harvesting the Paddy Fields is impossible during floods.
UNICEF are generous in giving out water purification tablets. Water-borne diseases such as cholera become a problem.
What water do the people drink in Bangladesh? Do they have to boil it?
Not everywhere suffers floods at a time of flood here. Maybe 30-40 districts, perhaps. Cities have a level of water – “no problem”.
The cities are usually well-supplied with water. In Dhaka which is our Capital City (population, twenty million), they used to boil their water. In flood areas they use the water purification tablets distributed by UNICEF .
Cultural effects of Floods
When the floods destroy our crops, of course, a lot more is lost apart from food (but who can do without food?). Life is about more than survival, it is about celebration.
At Hemonta (our Harvest season) for instance, we take our paddy (if we have it) and create a festival using the rice to make special dishes as well as rice flour. We use this for sweet cakes (Pitha), but it can also be used for savoury pastries, stuffed with, for example, spicy vegetables. We use water for drinks which include orange, lemon, and mango flavours, even mixing in chillies. Date jaggery can be used as a sweetener, if we have the dates.
There is dancing at festivals like these. Celebrations of Life that is threatened by flood.
HOPE
The future is hopeful where we can acknowledge that Bangladesh is a ‘young’ country.
In Bangladesh, 70% of the population are young people, willing to look after their country.
I am hopeful because of this (said Bangladesh).