Bangladesh: Land of rivers

Travels with David: Asia, Africa and The Balkans

For a small country, Bangladesh has a lot of rivers, around 700 according to most estimates. Roughly 10 percent of its total area is water, a high proportion considering that it has no large lakes. In other words, most of that water is moving. For the rural population, the rivers are interwoven with every aspect of their lives. They sustain agriculture and are the main highways for commerce. In many places, you need to travel by river to reach the school, the health clinic, or the government office. When the Himalayan snows melt, they wash earth from the mountain slopes into the river. Downstream in Bangladesh floodwaters submerge farmland and leave thousands of people trapped on levees and narrow spits of land. Yet when the muddy waters subside they leave behind rich, alluvial soil that makes the country one of the most fertile regions in Asia.