A common sense solution to floods

obtain lower water levels at a cost of $20 billion in 20 years time. The American experts dismissed the French proposal and suggested actions "that will help people live with the floods."

These discussions were going on almost two decades ago, and since then lots of aid money was received and used in different useless projects, but alas, the real flood control is yet an unfulfilled dream Bangladeshi population. We cannot blame anybody for our misfortune. We are fully responsible for our miseries and sufferings. Begging and praying for help for everything is our national character. We never try to do things on our own. We are 135 million people and we beg economic, social, and technical helps from small nations who have less than 5 million people and not as much natural resources as one would presume. Anyway, that is another story. For flood control, Bangladesh should try to help herself. The message to our leadership and the population at large shall be as simple as that. If we want to get rid of the devastating flood, we must get this gigantic job done correctly and successfully by planning, undertaking, and doing it ourselves. There is no other way out and sooner we understand this fact is the better.

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To control flood firstly we need a firm and honest political decision supported by our political leadership, intelligentsia, bureaucracy, and the public at large. Then we need about 500 Caterpillars, specially made, to make embankments around our boarders with India. Each machine will cost about $100,000. These machines can use natural gas to minimise cost and the total cost for these machines shall be about $50-55 million only, certainly a small amount by any sort of calculation. Then we need about 6,000 people to maintain and work with these machines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bangladesh army can recruit these 6,000 people, keep them in their pay book, and make them work under the supervision of the army or, why not our soldiers do this job? The supplier of these machines shall give training for maintenance and running of these Caterpillars smoothly.

A Swedish company in southern Sweden makes such Caterpillars. Korean or Chinese Caterpillars would be much cheaper. It is possible to get help from the seller financing the purchase if $50-55 million is such a huge amount for Bangladesh. We can also get help from SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) and many other organisations if we must beg help for such an important project. 2,000 people at a time and working 24 hours a day with 500 Caterpillars we can build a strong embankment around our borders with India within 2 years keeping only the mouths of our great rivers Ganga, Jamuna and Megna etc. open.

We shall also build big

embankments on both sides of these rivers. There should be, again, sluice gates to all small rivers to flush waters in and out as per our need. Working with firm determination and depending on self-help only it is possible to come near what the French engineers proposed in late eighties. While controlling the flow of water by embankments the water flow in these rivers would be so great that each river would dredge itself. The embankments can be also our highways and road transport system connecting the whole country. These embankments should be wide, strong, high and good enough to build new and small townships to urbanise the whole country and thereby making more land for cultivation. Excess water in rainy session we can pump out to tributary rivers using power pumps. We can also dig huge water reservoirs like old mega ponds (dighis) in each village for fresh drinking water, fish farming throughout the year and land cultivation in dry session. All houses of the village shall be located only on the high embankments around the mega pond.

We cannot stop excess water flow from India over Bangladesh in rainy season, but we can control it if we make strong, high embankments around our boarder and the riversides. The riverbeds of the mighty Ganga, Jamuna, and Megna will be automatically drained and deepen due to strong water flow from Indian parts of the rivers that flow to Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh. This suggestion sounds very simple, but let someone prove and explain the ambiguities one may find in it.

Tayeb Husain writes from Lund, Sweden.