Bangladesh – an overview

Bangladesh is a junior-grade coun sieve and is situated at the head of the Bay of Bengal. On its landward margins India almost surrounds it. The Tropic of crabmeat passes through the middle of the country.Bangladesh is a low lying country, 3/4 of it under a.s.l. It set up be divided into 2 principal(prenominal) regions. The commencement exercise is a vast alluvial plain, dominated by the delta of the aggroup. The second consists of the unless atomic take 18as of highland, which are in the east and southeast. The Chittagong Hills in the southeast rise to an comely height of 650m and in Silhet there are similar ridges that only submit 60 90 m. The country has a Tropical monsoon climate and the main features of this include high temperatures, high humidity and heavy rainfall and a marked dry season.COUNTRY STATISTICSArea 50,260 sq. miles (130,200 sq. km)Population 120,400,000Population compactness 836 mint/sq. kmPopulation Growth 2.16%Capital DhakaLanguages Bengali, slope Religions Muslim, HinduTotal GDP US$ 215,400,000,000Imports US$ 4,600,000,000Birth valuate 35.5/1000 peopleDeath Rate 11.7/1000 people career Expectancy 55.6 familysPer Capita PPP US$ 1,510Exports US$ 3,000,000,000Aid 26 billion dollars a year80% below poverty pull backRURAL ACTIVITIESBangladesh is 84% rural and the majority of the population lives in villages. in that location is nodefined pattern of urban use and cultivated palm can be found inside t throws.80% of the population depends right off or indirectly upon farming and it accounts for 33%of the countrys GNP.Most farms are small i.e. less than two hectares and are often fragmented. Not all farmers own their own land and many are share- harvest-homepers.For winter crops to be grown, irrigation is indwelling but of the total land cropped only 20% is irrigated.The main crops are strain, pulses, winter wheat, vegetables, bananas, jute, tea and sugar cane, the last three of these being property crops. Jute has been the leading cash crop for over 100 years. It is used for sacking, carpeting backing and string. Since the 1970s jute production has suffered from competition by other countries wish well China and India.The majority of farmers in Bangladesh are subsistence farmers many of whom have been boost to grow cash crops such as jute and tea. only the cultivation of rice is the single most important activity in the economy, and nearly 80% of farmed land is occupied by rice. on that point are numerous fisheries in Bangladesh and fish products account for 13% of exports and 70% of animal protein in the diet. reduce use in Bangladesh 67% arable land, 2% permanent crops, 4% meadows and pastures, 16% quality and woodland, 11% other.ISSUES OF CHANGEIn Bangladesh like in many other LEDCs, rural-urban migration is dominant. Many people especially from the younger multiplication flock to the cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong in search of locomote and a better quality of life than in the rural are as. They trust to find better healthcare and education, better paid jobs and improved housing. However when they arrive in the cities they usually find this not to be the case. There is often not enough housing for the new influx of people and so shanty towns, made of poor quality- makeshift housing, develop on the edges of the city. These shanty towns have no access to clean water or sanitation and as a result disease spreads easily in them. The enlarged population of the urban areas has a strain on the local anesthetic services and this creates further jobs relating to water supply and sewage.Rural-urban migration has caused the process of urbanization to increase and the capital city Dhaka has grown in size significantly.PROBLEMS cladding GOVERNMENTBangladesh has many problems both natural and human that the government has to try and tackle but being one of the poorest countries in the world and having smallish capital to invest in solutions, it is not easy.Bangladesh is pro ne to cyclones which travel north up the Bay of Bengal. These cyclones can be devastating and can set aside villages and infrastructure but can to a fault cause storm surges which can cause flooding. Flooding is the most severe problem that faces the country on an annual basis. About one third of Bangladesh is flooded each year during the monsoon.The country is so prone to flooding due to a number of reasons both physical and human. Most of the country consists of the huge floodplain and delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. 70% of the country is less than 1m above sea level and rivers, lakes and swamps correct 10% of the land area. Snowmelt from the glaciers in the Himalayas in the late spring and spend increases discharges. There are heavy monsoon rains especially over the Himalayas, the uplands in Assam and the rally Indian Plateau.Of these, the heavy monsoon rains are the main physical cause of the flooding. In some years including 1998 the rains were exceptionally he avy, (see graph) causing river levels to rise and severe floods to occur. discordant other problems in Bangladesh such as deforestation and overpopulation are also responsible for the problem of flooding. The Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers have their headwaters in Nepal and Tibet where in fresh years the rapidly increasing populations have caused the remotion of vast areas of forest, to leave fuel, timber and grazing land. In Bangladesh the forests are in crisis. There has been a rapid depletion of forest in the last 20 years for crop land, fuel and due to illegal logging.The forests play a major office in the hydrology of the upland drainage basins absorbing water from the ground, binding the alter particles and cut back the impact of rain droplets on the ground surface. Overall the forest cover slows the journey of the water to the river channels reducing the flood risk. The removal of the forest cover has reduced interception and increased landslides, soil erosion and overlan d flow. The silt and soil is deposited in the river channels causing the raising of the riverbeds and reducing the capacity of the rivers. It is estimated that soil is being lost 400 times scurrying in deforested areas and is raising the river bed of the Brahmaputra by 5cm per year.Urbanization is also a factor that effects flooding in Bangladesh. Recent development schemes involving the verbalism of networks of roads and embankments have probably added obstacles to the free drainage of water from the land.The problem that the government faces is that it can not afford to provide sufficient precautions and guard duty systems, like cyclone shelters, to safeguard against flooding, whilst it has to pay off a huge internal debt. Many countries do not see Bangladesh as a feasible state and so therefore are reluctant to invest coin in it.