Regional cooperation in flood management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna region: Bangladesh perspective

Bangladesh is known to be highly vulnerable to floods. Frequent floods have put enormous constraints on its development potential. Unfortunately, the frequency of high intensity floods is on the rise. So far the country has struggled to put a sizeable infrastructure in place to prevent flooding in may parts of the country with limited success. In recent times, it was found that losses of lives and valuable assets could be significantly minimized by implementing non-structural measures including the improvement of flood forecasting and warning system. The existing flood forecasting and warning capacity of Bangladesh could be more effective if real-time data could be acquired from upstream areas within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) catchment, where runoff is generated. In order to do so, Bangladesh needs to foster an effective regional cooperation with the other GBM regional countries of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. This article examines how GBM regional cooperation could be useful towards managing floods in Bangladesh in particular and the region in general.