Geography Rivers Case study (The Ganges River)
Characteristics
The river basin population is 400 million.
River length= 1,560 miles (2,510 km)
There are 29 cities in the settlement which include Varanasi
Soils are very fertile
The river flows through China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh
The river source= Himalayas
The most densely populated area = 200 people per Km2
Opportunities
Religious beliefs
Used for bathing
Water burials. to make pyre float
Pilgrimage and festivals
Tilapia Fish (Ecology)
using river to bathe
Tourism
NGO teaches people to fish and gives them a loan
promotes tourism for the wildlife found their eg Bengal Tigers and Ganges river dolphins
fertile soil
There's a large harvest (2/3 of Bangladeshis work in agriculture)
Biggest producer of rice, jute, wheat, maize and sugar cane
4th Biggest producer of rice
Dams and hydro-electric power
utilizes its share of the waters of the Ganges
Farakka dam completed in 1975
Industry
the water is needed to cool down the machines
3 million small scale industrial units are found along the Ganges River
Hazards
Cyclones
Cyclone Isla affected 3 million people.
Bangladesh is the most hazard prone country in the world
Cyclone Bhola killed about 1 million people
Floods
Death is caused by disease or drowning
Bangladesh is less able to deal with them
30 million people were homeless after a flood in 1998. The same flood left 2/3 of the population underwater for 50 days
A devastating flood occurs once every 5 years
Bangladesh asked for $900 million
Pollution
Unburnt corpses floating in the river
1 billion litres of mostly untreated raw sewage enters the river every day
Causes of flooding
Physical
Human
Raising sea level
change in climate
On shore winds
bring monsoons between May and September
Tropical cyclones
Drainage basin
low lying land
found 12m above sea level
1.7 million km2 (7 x UK)
Terrential rain
1 metre of rain every day
Blows water in land to create storm surges
climate change
using more resources
population growth
Urbanisation
Irrigation in Nepal and China
more being destroyed
less interception
cultivate more land on more flood prone land
most densely populated place in the world
melting glaciers create more water
sea level rising = longer and more severe floods
more slit, more deposited material
discharge decreased
river bed is higher and more likely to flood
Impacts of flooding
1000 people killed
30,000 homeless
50 million living on flood prone land which means it take longer for them to recover from disease.
River shifts as the slit is really soft
Chars make people who live on them homeless and then have to migrate to Dhaka
10 million people live in slums
17 million people live in Dhaka
Bangladesh lose 3-10% of their GDP
families have to start again
Flood contaminates water
damages crops, roads (destroyed 670,000 hectares)
Managing the hazard
Hard engineering
Alternative stragateries
building house on stilts
Oxfam distributed supplies EG purifying kits
Dhaka has a western embankment which protects the city
new channels, underground drains, pumping station
Clutter villages which are built on raised land and have shared facilities and land
flood shelters, raised buildings for people to stay in until water level decrease
Chars
charity donations
Farming technique
raising Tilapia fish
Growing pumpkins on sand soil
raising ducks
island that appears in the middle of the river
made through aggredation
disappear easily
short term solution
supporting families to build house away from the floodplain
funded by NGOs
so less people are affected
which provide a food source and can be sold
they can last through the floods as they can easily be moved to another pond
grown on cheap land that no one wants
grow after flood season and harvest before
easy to store for a long time
provide a good diet
you can sell duck eggs
eat pests and insects
Poo to protect land