Welcome to Geodesh! This website aims to report and highlight current and potential future issues around groundwater-fed water supply, climate change and anthropogenic impacts on environments in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta in Bangladesh and other Asian Mega-deltas.
GBM Delta (also known as the Bengal Delta) and other Asian Mega-deltas are currently facing various water and environment related problems of which groundwater contamination by elevated arsenic is recognised as the world's largest mass poisoning in history. Millions of people in Bangladesh and other South and Southeast Asian countries are exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic through drinking water that comes from alluvial aquifers formed by young sediments deposited by river systems originated in the Himalayas and the Indo-Burman Mountains. Groundwater occurring at shallow depths in most places of these fluvial deltas has been used for drinking and irrigation purposes. Greatest dependence on this resource is observed in the GBM Delta in Bangladesh and West Bengal (India). Mega-cities like Dhaka and Kolkata in the GBM Delta are now facing serious crisis of public water supply. Many areas in Bangladesh are also experiencing lack of irrigation water supply during the dry season threatening rice cultivation. These problems have already intensified from being short-term problems to long-term management issues and will likely pose serious threats to economic development in the region. Additionally, climate change and rising sea levels in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean are likely to exacerbate public water supply and environmental flows by increasing water salinity in coastal areas, particularly in the area of Surdarbans - the largest mangrove forest in the world. Sea-level rise in other Asian Mega-deltas may impose similar environmental problems although dependence on groundwater-fed water supplies is relatively low in Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya, Mekong, and Red River deltas. Changing patterns in the monsoon rainfall associated with global warming may negatively impact groundwater recharge and storage in these Mega-deltas. |
This website designed and maintained by Dr. M. Shamsudduha (Shams), Department of Geography, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Copyright © 2011 - Geodesh | Dr. Mohammad Shamsudduha