Medc And Ledc Flood Case Study

Question 1

When were the Bihar floods?

Answer 1

August - September 2008

Long heavy period of rainfall along foothills of the Himalayas.

Question 2

Where is Bihar?

Answer 2

North east of India, bordering Nepal.

Question 3

What is the situation in Bihar ?

Answer 3

• caste system still in use despite its lack of legality.
• Bihar, 42% of the population live below poverty line.
• through Bihar flows the kosi river; a tributary of the river Ganges.

Question 4

Causes of the floods?

Answer 4

• monsoon season occurs in the late summer months and is caused by a seasonal reversal of winds in the area. The monsoon brought even rainfall to foothills of Himalayas and dramatically increased the discharge of kosi. The river was forced to flow through a channel it hand flown through in 100 years, flooding a large portion of Bihar.
• flooding enhanced and worsened by deforestation that had taken place in kosi river drainage basin. Lack of veg meant little interception so the rain water easily flowed into the river via surface run off.
• kosi river had flood defences supposed to handle approx 30,000m3 of water per second but were breached at a fraction of that capacity suggesting that the defences were defective/poorly maintained.

Question 5

Effects of Bihar floods

Social effects

Answer 5

• flood killed 500-2000 people.
• 3 million people were made homeless and sent to refuge camps.
• a shortage of clean drinking water and warm climate meant that water born and vector diseases were easily spread.
• shortage of food. 70% of Bihar population are farmers, many of which are subsistence farmers. When 100,000 ha of land was flooded, most of their food was destroyed, most of their flood was destroyed.
• allegations of discrimination when it came to evacuating people. Claimed that the rich were evacuated first and given most emergency food while some members of “untouchables” weren’t evacuated at all.

Question 6

Economic

Answer 6

• 70% of Biharis population are farmers and 100,000 ha of land was inundated by floodwater, destroying wheat and rice that could be traded.
• roads destroyed, costing money to repair and disrupting trade.
• disaster cost nearly $542 million according to some reports

Question 7

Environmental

Answer 7

Flood will have washed sewage and pollutants into the kosi river, polluting it and killing off some wildlife.
Alluvium silt- natural fertiliser.

Question 8

Short term responses

Answer 8

• Indian government created a £115m relief package to be sent to Bihar.
• government released 125,000 tonnes of emergency grain that was to be distributed in Bihar. (Because of the famine)
• 400,000 people evacuated to relief camps.
• 1,500 soldiers sent to help rescue citizens and disperse aid. Helicopters also provided but were limited in their effectiveness due to continued heavy rain.
• aid agencies dispatched to Bihar and especially important in ensure lower classes of society given aid. Aid agencies provided rescue efforts,food, clean water supplies and shelter.

Question 9

Long term responses

Answer 9

• world bank gave significant funds to help Bihar recover and rebuild. It also helped in creating plans to help improve quality of living to standards above those seen before disaster.
• ‘owner driven housing reconstruction’ scheme created, funded by world bank, to give money to homeowners to rebuild their homes using bamboo, bricks, corrugated iron& concrete. Each household given $1,200 for the reconstruction with $50 going towards a toilet and $110 towards solar panelled lightning. The scheme gave $110 to households that did not own their own land so that they could go out and buy some.
• new bridges and roads were constructed to a higher standard than those that had previously been constructed. When plan to reconstruct infrastructure laid out, expected that 90 bridges and 290km of road would be reconstructed, benefitting 2 million people.
• new flood defences reconstructed and people educated on how to maintain them- to make them sustainable. Estimated to cost $500 million to build new embankments, strengthen existing embankments, improve food management and improve flood prediction technologies.

Question 10

Where is boscastle located?

Answer 10

• boscastle located in southwest England, less than 11km from coastline.

Question 11

When did it happen ?

Answer 11

16th August 2004.

Question 12

Causes of the boscastle flood (summarise)

Answer 12

• hurricane Alex and convectional rainfall.
• 60mm in two hours and 200 mm of rainfall overall.
• Bodmin moor- rain fell- impermeable rock and sparse vegetation.
• river valency valley has high relief
• urbanisation on the flood plain
• precedent rainfall
• the two rivers met at boscastle with high levels of discharge
• channel blocking.

Question 13

Economic effects of boscastle

Answer 13

-insurance claims 15,000 -30, 000 but insurance not go up.
- tourism- put people off.
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