Alternative Approaches to Flood Control: The Case of Bangladesh

This paper offers a critique of the cordon approach to flood control that Bangladesh has been pursuing for several decades now. It shows how this approach fails to solve the flood problem, deprives the flood plains from benefits of regular river-inundation, creates a risky situation for the inhabitants inside cordons, brings in new problems of drainage and sanitation, and leads to huge waste of resources. The paper then argues for the open approach to flood control. The main components of this approach are re-excavation of river beds and other surface water bodies, minimization of obstruction on floodplains, increasing the elevation of rural and urban dwellings, restoration of waterways, and promotion of rural settlement consolidation around permanent flood shelters. The paper shows in what ways the opening-up approach to flood control is better than the cordon approach.