Many sections of land are like saucers, with riverbanks forming their rims. Silt raises the riverbeds, not only creating chars [islands of silt within rivers] but also causing the rivers to spill over their banks, sometimes carving out a new course. … At Sadullapur the Meghna River ate away 200 feet (61 meters) of earth in ten days.

—From "Bangladesh: When the Water Comes," June 1993, National Geographic magazine