Introduction: The unusual swelling of water that overflows the banks of the rivers and submerging a vast area of land is called flood. It is a natural calamity. It is sometimes called deluge. It is devastating and horrible when causes a colossal loss to lives and properties. Bangladesh, being a land of rivers, often falls victims to floods almost every year.

Causes: Floods causes of various reason. Excessive and continued heavy rainfall is the main cause of flood in our country. When there is heavy rain for a number of days the rivers cannot hold and carry down so much water to the sea. As a result, the water overflows the bank of rivers and submerges a vast area of land. Sometimes heavy rushed of water running down from the mountains gives rise to spate in the rivers. Again, melting of snow in the mountains and tidal bore of the sea create flood. Recently the sudden release of water from the Farakka barrage at the upper during rainy season overflows rivers and floods the country.

Merits: Floods do immense good to us. They make our soil alluvial and fertile. As such our soil becomes suitable for growing more and better crops. They wash away all sorts of rubbishes and purify the surface of the earth.

Bad effects of floods: In spite of doing good floods often bring untold miseries to our country by damaging our crops and properties. It also disrupts the communication network and causes untold miseries of our people. Thousands of people become homeless, helpless and suffer greatly for want of shelter, food and many other things.

After effect: Famine and pestilence break out in the wake of floods as there is acute scarcity of food and pure drinking water. People often drink dirty water as a result of which epidemics break out in the shape of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery etc. The price of all daily necessaries goes up.

Some notable floods: The floods that took place in 1954, 1961, 1968, 1974, 1985, 1988, 1998, created much havoc. But havoc created by most devastating flood of 1988 beggars description. It surpassed all the previous records of losses and distresses.

Flood control measures: Firstly, by building dams and embankments across the rivers floods may be brought under control. Secondly, by dredging the river beds from time to time and thereby depending the rivers occasional flood may be controlled to some extent. It is encouraging to note that the government of Bangladesh is fully aware of it and has already taken several measures to control floods in the country.

Conclusion: Ours is an agricultural country. Our national economy and the prosperity of our people largely depend on agriculture. So, the government of Bangladesh should take both short-term and long-term measures to control floods so that they may not cause the damage of our crops, cattle, houses and properties.