Although recurrent floods cause detrimental impact for the people living in riverine floodplains, households are taking up various risks management strategies to deal with them. This paper examined household’s post-disaster coping strategies to respond and recover from riverine floods in 2017. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey from 377 households from the right bank of Teesta River in Bangladesh. Households employed different coping strategies including borrowing money, assets disposal, consumption reduction, temporary migration, and grants from external sources, to cope with flood. Results from logistic regression models suggested that increasing severity of flood reduced households’ consumption. Exposed households were more likely to borrow money. Consumption reduction and temporary migration were mostly adopted by agricultural landless households. Income from nonfarm sources was found to be an important factor influencing household’s decisions on coping. Furthermore, households that recovered from the last flood disaster seek insurance through their own savings and available physical assets, highlighting the role of disaster preparedness in resilient recovery. This study calls for the policy intervention at the household-level to enhance the adaptive capacity of riverine households so that people at risk can cope better and recover from flood disaster using their resources.

Bangladesh is characterised by its large population on a small land, rapid and unplanned urbanisation, rising urban inequalities, food and nutritional insecurity and lower level of resilience to climate change. These combined effects are major threats to food security of the country in the near future. This paper examined the implications of population growth and climate change on sustainable development of Bangladesh. This research was based on the analysis of chronological data and synthesis of literature on population growth, greenhouse gases emission, climate change, food security and sustainable development, mainly contextualised on Bangladesh. The analysis found that the population of Bangladesh has almost doubled between 1980 and 2015. The country shared around 2.2% (in 2013) of global population and contributed only 0.19% of global carbon dioxide emission. On the contrary, climate change is the biggest challenge for the country. An increase in temperature could decline rice and wheat production. Moreover, average monsoon rainfall would be increased as a result of increased temperature. The increase in temperature and rainfall may lead to early arrival and late departure of the monsoon season or an increase in mean daily rainfall intensity. Population growth and climate change have multiple implications on development. Therefore, sustainable development may be difficult to attain if climate change continues to jeopardise economic growth, environmental stability as well as the social progress of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh shares a common border with India in the west, north and east and with Myanmar in the southeast. These borders cut across 57 rivers that discharge through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal in the south. The upstream courses of these rivers traverse India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. Transboundary flows are the important sources of water resources in Bangladesh. Among the 57 transboundary rivers, the Teesta is the fourth major river in Bangladesh after the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna and Bangladesh occupies about 2071 km2 . The Teesta River floodplain in Bangladesh accounts for 14% of the total cropped area and 9.15 million people of the country. The objective of this study was to investigate trends in both maximum and minimum water flow at Kaunia and Dalia stations for the Teesta River and the coping strategies developed by the communities to adjust with uncertain flood situations. The flow characteristics of the Teesta were analysed by calculating monthly maximum and minimum water levels and discharges from 1985 to 2006. Discharge of the Teesta over the last 22 years has been decreasing. Extreme low-flow conditions were likely to occur more frequently after the implementation of the Gozoldoba Barrage by India. However, a very sharp decrease in peak flows was also observed albeit unexpected high discharge in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1997, 1999 and 2004 with some in between April and October. Onrush of water causes frequent flash floods, whereas decreasing flow leaves the areas dependent on the Teesta vulnerable to droughts. Both these extreme situations had a negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of people dependent on the Teesta. Over the years, people have developed several risk mitigation strategies to adjust with both natural and anthropogenic flood situations. This article proposed the concept of ‘MAXIN (maximum and minimum) flows’ for river water justice for riparian land.

Traditional knowledge (TK) on disaster provides useful forecasting information for the hazardprone communities. However, the documentation of TK is inadequate in the context of Bangladesh, putting it at risk of extinction. The goal of the study is to evaluate the ability of the people living near the river to forecast floods using their TK. This study collected data from the people living near the river in Bangladesh in 2019 using a questionnaire survey with 377 respondents and focus group discussions. The data from the questionnaire survey was assessed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests. Data analyses were performed in SPSS version 26. Respondents' awareness of TK to forecast floods in riverine contexts was classified into categories: weather phenomena, cloud formation, rainfall patterns, river behavior, and observing plants and animals? behavior. This study revealed that 97.3% of respondents were aware of at least one cue to forecast flood hazards in their area. The findings suggested that the respondents' gender and profession significantly influenced their awareness of using TK to forecast floods by observing the behaviors of plants and animals. For the people living near the river, TK plays a crucial role as they reside in remote areas with inadequate national-level warning systems. These findings will contribute to the current discourse regarding the integration of TK in disaster management practices.

River floods are distinct because not all of them are destructive and typically affect the people who are living in riverine areas. Therefore, people often refuse to evacuate even when they face imminent danger. River floods are a recurrent phenomenon in Bangladesh. This research aims to analyse the flood evacuation behaviour of riverine people in Bangladesh. A total of 377 households were selected for the questionnaire survey and were interviewed from April 2019 to May 2019. Bivariate and multivariate statistics were employed to analyse riverine people's evacuation behaviour based on their socio-demographic and economic characteristics. This study found that although 82% of the households had received flood warning messages, only 40% had evacuated. Results from multivariate analysis suggested that the age of household heads, their education, whether they are disabled/chronically ill members, their income, the height of floodwater inside the house, and the type of warning messages they receive appear to be key determinants that influenced their decisions regarding evacuation. Elderly household heads had a lower likelihood to evacuate. The results showed a negative association between early warning messages and evacuation. Household with disabled/chronically ill member(s) was associated with a higher likelihood of evacuation. Similarly, higher water depth in the home was associated with evacuation. These findings will be helpful for policymakers to enhance awareness of riverine households.

Shuvo NA, et al. Clin Exp Vaccine Res. 2022 Sep;11(3):274-284. https://doi.org/10.7774/cevr.2022.11.3.274