WATER CALAMITIES AND CONFLICTS

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.