4th lecture: Colonial Disasters

Question 1

Association Round: Disaster

Answer 1

Hazard
-> natural causes: floods, tsunami, earthquake
-> human made catastrophies: toxic gases, work conditions, war
|
v
Social Vulnerabilty
-> marginalising structures
-> connected to infrastructure
-> responsibility
=> this determines the actual outcome
|
v
Outcome
-> people affected
-> social change
-> short/long-term effects in society, economy, policies, health, technology

Question 2

Essential features of a drought

Answer 2

• A “creeping hazard”, i.e. develops slowly,
  prolonged existence
• Social vulnerability extremely important,
  e.g. national wealth
• Rainfall reliability more important than
  absolute amounts
• Important to view water shortage in terms
  of need rather than absolute amounts
• Droughts and famines are often perceived
  and cause and effect: more complicated
  than that.

Question 2

What types of droughts are there ? (4)

Answer 2

Meteorological drought (no rain)
Hydrological drought (groundwater dried
up)
Agricultural drought (soil moisture
insufficiant to take up water)
Famine Dought (extreme type of agric
drought)

Question 2

Main Drought Impacts

Answer 2

• urban water supply
• crop yields
• starvation and death

Question 3

Physical and Human Factors for a drought

Answer 3

Physical:
Not completely understood, but growing evidence that ”large-scale interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans are implicated.”

Human:
Population density?
Reliance on rain-fed agriculture
Increased pressure on land: soil erosion and degradation
Poverty
…

Question 3

Mitigation and Protection

Answer 3

• Food-aid: a short-term solution with
  various pitfalls (how to target those in
  need?)
• Controlling the environment: artificial
  stimulation of rainfall
• Additional supply of water (e.g. by drilling
  new boreholes)
  -“ tech-fix” solutions: dams and pipelines
• Community preparedness, e.g. diversification of agriculture (drought-resistant crops, diverse herds, etc.)

Question 4

The problems with the numbers regarding famine

Answer 4

• No census from before -> hard to compare
  numbers
• Died of famine or of consequences?

Question 5

Events leading up to the Famine in India (19th cent)

Answer 5

1886: monsoon didn’t come-> starvation as consequence

1860s: civil war in north america -> lack of cotton production -> India took up the production, also lot of other crops
- But not food for own population but
production of non eatable food and the
one that was eatable got exported
- In other parts in india good harvest, but
got exported
- Opening of suez kanal: easy transport of
cheap crops from india to UK, also new
ships that make it economically logic to
transport it from one place in the world to
the other
- Companies hoarded food as the famine
upped the price

Question 6

British Policies towards the Famine

Answer 6

• British didn’t provide import of grain or
  other food to combat
• “famine relief strategy” -> relief in work
  camps
• “distance test” -> no relief seekers within
  16km was allowed to work in a camp
  ○ Many ppl tried to reach the work
  camp and died on the way
• Another “strategy” : workers in camps provided with 1627kcal / day