DISASTERS - Floods

THE WORLD

DISASTERS

The gift of the river
                    Over thousands of years, rivers like the Yangtze in China have created fertile farmland, leaving layers of  rich silt behind as they flood and then retreat. to protect their fields from severe flooding, farmers build giant dykes of earth. these are reinforced by long nets woven from local crops and filled with stones.

In the breach
      Dykes have guarded China's farmland  for centuries, and are often big enough to take roads along their tops. But sudden rises in water levels can still cause disaster. after months of rain in 1998, the Yangtze burst through. more than 700,000 rescuers, including thousands of soldiers, struggled to save the dykes - but over a million people lost their homes.

From feast to famine
      Living in a flood zone is a balancing act. The fertile land enables farmers to reap two or three harvests a year. But in disasters such as the Bangladesh floods of 1998, families face cruel hardships when rivers overflow. Their homes and fields are flooded, drowning the crops and leaving them buried under a new layer of mud. Than they are faced with months of food and medical shortages before the waters finally subside.