GNV News, August 28, 2024

Due to the impact of the heavy rains that began in mid-August 2024, 23 people have died in Bangladesh and 5.7 million people are said to have been affected. As of the 28th, the floods are receding, but many people remain isolated, and there are shortages of food, safe water, and medicine. Flooding and landslide damage have also been reported in neighboring India.

Bangladesh is geographically prone to flooding, and the effects of climate change are also pronounced. However, the current floods are also sending ripples through India–Bangladesh relations. In Bangladesh, there are growing claims that the Indian government failed to give prior notice when releasing water from a dam in Tripura, exacerbating flood damage downstream in Bangladesh. In response, the Indian government acknowledged that water was released but explained that notification was delayed because communications were cut off by the floods, and it denied that the release affected Bangladesh. Since early August, when the India-backed former government of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina was toppled, friction between India and Bangladesh had already been rising, and the latest floods have further worsened relations.

Learn more about the floods in Bangladesh → “Bangladesh’s floods: A microcosm of the world”

Learn more about the floods in Pakistan → “Pakistan’s climate crisis: Floods, finances, and the future”

River sediment that flowed into the Bay of Bengal during the 2019 floods (Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])