The impacts of sea level rise 151Figure 7.4Land affected
in Bangladesh by various
amounts of sea level rise.agriculture and eighty-five per cent of the nation’s population depends
on agriculture for its livelihood. Many of these people are at the very
edge of subsistence.
But the loss of land is not the only effect of sea level rise. Bangladesh
is extremely prone to damage from storm surges. Every year, on average,
at least one major cyclone attacks Bangladesh. During the past twenty-
five years there have been two very large disasters with extensive flooding
and loss of life. The storm surge in November 1970 is probably the largest
of the world’s natural disasters in recent times; it is estimated to have
claimed the lives of over a quarter of a million people. Well over a 100 000
are thought to have lost their lives in a similar storm in April 1991. Even
small rises in sea level add to the vulnerability of the region to such
storms.
There is a further effect of sea level rise on the productivity of agri-
cultural land; that is, the intrusion of saltwater into fresh groundwater