WATER CALAMITIES
1. flood
Flood:- overflowing or upsurge of water bodies leading to a massive outflow of water on terrestrial lands.
Each year flood causes abundant agricultural and human mankind loss.
Causes of flood
- Sometimes due to persistent rainfall, Dams burst open. Thus massive flooding occurs.
- Flash Flood
- Persistent precipitation leads to flooding.
- Improper drainage system leads to flooding.
- Deforestation
- No construction of Dams along with the river.
Effects of flood
- Huge loss of life because people drain down.
- Electrical supply is severely affected.
- Houses get submerged in water. Sometimes houses get self demolished because their basement gets weak as water pores inside buildings material.
- A nation’s economic stability is affected and sometimes recession occurs.
- Farmlands are destroyed.
- City submerged, thus affecting office works.
- Many water-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, cholera, typhoid, became epidemic.
For example: In Chennai, each year due to massive flooding, typhoid becomes prominent as an epidemic.
2. Drought
A drought is a period when an area or region experiences below-normal precipitation. The lack of adequate precipitation, either rain or snow, can cause reduced soil moisture or groundwater, diminished streamflow, crop damage, and a general water shortage.
Causes of drought
- No precipitation at all or minimum rainfall leads to cracking down of earth soil.
- Agricultural land that is left Barren for years.
Unlike sudden weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms, it is often difficult to pinpoint when a drought has started or when it has ended. The initial effects of a drought may be difficult to identify right away, so it may take weeks or months to determine that the drought has started. The end of a drought is tough to spot for the same reason. A drought may last for weeks, months, or maybe years. Sometimes, drought conditions can exist for a decade or more during a region. The longer it lasts, the greater are the harmful effects.
Effects of Drought
- Massive death due to starvation or epidemic.
- The area prone to drought deals with huge economic, social, and psychological stress.
- Economic– hardly any agro-industrial outcome comes.
- Social– no one can help anyone because everyone is dealing with the same disaster in equal terms. It is always widespread.
- Psychological– deaths due to starvation, epidemic always makes a setback in families especially children’s. Traumatic disorders are very prominent.
3. water conflicts
From time immemorial, conflicts on water national or international are persistent. Water is a commodity of vital survival and has always been in debate. The reason can be
- Low or no water reserve
- River bisected by two or more states, countries.
- Recent drought
- Dam construction
- Population displacement.
• National Conflicts
- Krishna River dispute between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
- Cauvery river dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• International conflicts
- Indus water dispute between India and Pakistan
- Tista River dispute between India and Bangladesh.
- Colorado river – Mexico and USA.