Indigenous knowledge-based flood risk reduction and management by the Padma riverine char communities in Bangladesh

The risks and damages from flood and riverbank erosion hazards are much higher for char-dwellers in Bangladesh. Generations after generation people of the char-lands have experienced these types of calamities and combat the hazards with their indigenous knowledge and practices. Indigenous knowledge-based coping strategies are very important in reducing risks although these are often invisible to outsiders. The major purposes of this paper are to find out their indigenous knowledge-based flood risk reduction and management strategies to reduce their damages from recurrent flood hazards and to measure the underline causes and constraints at local level to follow them. Results from household survey data, different tools of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and a number of case studies from three types of char-land villages of the Ganges-Padma riverine areas found that seasonality-based diversified livelihood, protection of homestead and dwelling structures by local materials and techniques, gardening and seed-bed preparation in the homestead area etc. were their major flood risk reduction strategies against recurrent flood hazards. The char-dwellers in the study area take temporary short-term measures to cope with floods hazards, but they cannot take long-term measures due to lack of financial ability and policy support as well as lack of awareness.