Floods and
Droughts
By Shaheer
What are floods and droughts?
Floods:Overflow of a large amount
of water beyond its normal limits, in
rivers that has run off to dry land
Droughts:A period of dryness with
little to no precipitation
Why do they occur?
Floods are caused when a
river overflows usually
because of a glacier
melting,the overflowing water
cannot be stopped by the
riverbed and a flood occurs
Droughts are caused by floods
which destroy the soil or when
a place receives no rainfall at
all also destroying the soil.
Effect of Floods on Human
activities:
Flooding usually brings with it chaos
anywhere it goes and effects our
everyday activity a lot in ways such as:
§ Many people are injured or killed
§ Water gets contaminated by waste water
and dirty water
§ Diseases thrive because of all the water
§ Electrical power supplies and poles are
destroyed
§ Businesses like restaurants are closed down
§ Hospitals and institutions close as well
§ Houses and personal property is destroyed
§ Transportation is difficult
Effects of Droughts on Human
activities:
Droughts are some of the worst
things that can happen to a country
because:
§ Economy suffers
§ Agriculture is impossible
§ Starvation becomes common
§ Sanitation becomes difficult
§ Infectious disease spread
§ Livestock farming is harder
§ Fights for food and water
§ Nomadic lifestyle is adopted
Benefits of Floods:
§ Floods can cause the topsoil to replenish its
nutrients
§ Flood water is absorbed by aquifers refilling
them
§ Perenial irrigation becomes possible
§ Water sources are refilled
§ Fishing industry thrives after a flood
Historical data about droughts
and Floods:
There were many floods and droughts in pakistans history,one example of a
flood was the flood in 2003 where the sindh province was hit with above
usual monsoon resulting in 2 days straight rainfall in karachi creating
chaos,thatta district was hit even harder with flash floods,at 484 had died
and villages were destroyed.
As for droughts the 2000 drought,26 districts were affected and starvation
became common there,22 districts reached a point of crisis,more than 20k
families and more than a million cattle was severely affected
Where do floods and droughts
appear in Pakistan?
Most of the floods in pakistan
are caused by monsoon rains
and occur near the indus river
so its safe to say most of them
appear in K.P.K and sindh but
sometimes certain parts of
punjab and balochistan are
also hit,for droughts its usually
in sindh or Balochistan
Ways of preventing a flood:
Floods can be prevented quite easily by:
§ Making separate stronger river embankments
§ Make more smaller dams
§ afforestation
§ Making more fish farms
§ Active diversions
§ Increasing dams capacity
Ways of preventing droughts:
§ Afforestation
§ Water management
§ Making more reservoirs for water storage
§ Using rain more effectively
§ Desalination for more water
§ Using irrigation water more effectively by sprinklers
Climate after Floods and
Droughts:
After a flood usually comes a
Drought unless it is managed,if
not then the climate is
complely arid since there is
little to no rainfall and the
temperature only rises and
stays hot
Thank you
