Aftermath of the 2004 Bangladesh flood

The devastating flood that swept through Bangladesh in 2004 was one of the worst seen in the country and left havoc in its wake. While Bangladesh is a country used to floods, having suffered severe devastation in 1987, 1988 and 1998, it is years since it experienced anything on this scale.

In this most recent flood, 41 out of 64 districts were affected, engulfing two-thirds of the country and affecting more than 25 million of its 130 million people.

Floodwaters submerged more than half the city of Dhaka.

Credit: WaterAid / Brent Stirton

Dhaka, the capital, was a city swimming in sewage. More than half the city was submerged in the weeks, when the floodwaters began pouring, first from the swollen rivers as they burst their banks, then from overburdened sewers disgorging back on to the streets.

The floods seriously affected many areas that WaterAid works in, and so WaterAid and its partners actively engaged in assisting in water and sanitation issues, by rehabilitating existing work and through hygiene education.

WaterAid's initial response included supplying oral saline and water purification tablets, providing transportation for emergency patients, disinfecting water points affected by flood water and raising awareness of hygiene risks through posters.

Following this activity, WaterAid assessed the impact of this work to see the ways it could assist further.

Possible further work could include repairing tubewells, construction of mobile latrines, and house to house counseling. This additional work is dependent on whether both the work carried out and planned will make a real impact on solving the problems and will not affect the successful completion of WaterAid's long term aims in Bangladesh.