BANGLADESH: Country EXPANDS despite global "warming"

DHAKA, 9 September 2008 (IRIN) - New data suggests that Bangladesh is getting bigger - in contrast to earlier predictions that much of the low-lying nation would sink because of rising sea levels due to climate change.

According to specialists, more than 1 billion metric tonnes (MT) of sediment travels down the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers to the Bay of Bengal annually, much of which comes to rest along the southern shoreline.

Known as "accretion", the process has been going on for decades and is already having an impact.

Using satellite imagery, scientists at the Dhaka-based Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) a government-owned research organisation, now say the country is growing by 20 sqkm annually.

In the 1950s, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was 147,000 sqkm in size. Today it is 148,393 sqkm - growing at a rate of 232 sqkm every 10 years.