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by radford-neal 32 days ago
The river water picks up silt as it flows to the sea. The silt has to go somewhere. That's why the delta exists, and grows, absent other effects.

The river wandering is part of this. Since the silt can only be deposited where the water goes, for the delta to grow (or just maintain itself) the river has to go here and there all over it.

And yes, people die when this happens. But if you stop the river wandering, the silt isn't going to be deposited so as to maintain the delta.

Maybe it's not a good location for permanent human settlement.