 Bangladesh has been repeatedly exposed to severe flooding.Dhaka was particularly hit by the floods of 1970, 1974, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007 and 2009, some of which such as the ones in 1988 and 1998 were catastrophic with flood levels of up to 4.5m in parts of the city.During the 1998 flood about 56 percent of the city was inundated, including most of the eastern and 23 percent of the western parts of the city.