Effects of Rainfall - Draughts and Floods

Effects of Rainfall - Draughts and Floods Water is used in our day to day life.

Uses of Water Water is used in our day to day life. Water is used for everyday needs such as brushing, bathing, washing, cleaning etc. Farmers use ground water to water their fields. Many industries use ground water to produce everything from paints and fabric to leather and chemicals. So ground water is used for many purposes. Moreover the decline in the number of trees, excess usage of water and the presence of concrete in the areas does not allow the rain water to seep into the ground which is the reason for the shortage of water. Droughts Due to lack of rains the wells, lakes, ponds get dried up and thereby creating water scarcity and as result droughts are possible. If there are no rains, then the soil becomes more dry and patchy. Droughts occur when there are no rains for a longer period of time. There is less rainfall because trees are cut down. Droughts results in drying up of the crops and vegetation and this effects the availability of food for villages and food for the other animals. Finally this leads to malnutrition in humans. Floods Due to heavy rainfall the water levels in ponds, lakes rises to a greater extend and the rise in the water level of these water bodies causes the excess water to spread across causing floods. Floods wash out the living beings such as fish and other animals etc. and they create great havoc to the mankind. Once the rains stops the flood water receded, fish, cattle and other animals were left dead.     Floods cause lot of harm to the living beings and there will be loss in property also.

Rain Harvesting Harvesting is a method to collect rain water and store the rain water. The purpose of harvesting rain water is that two thirds of the earth is covered with water. Ocean and sea water contains many dissolved salts and cannot be used for drinking, agriculture and domestic purposes. So constant use of ground water results in scarcity of groundwater. So rain harvesting clears the problem of depleting the ground water. Technique involved in rain harvesting First collect the rain water at the rooftop and then allow the rain water to travels through the pipes or drains and then attach a wire mesh to the mouth pipe which filters large fragments such as leaves etc. This water is transported to the water tanks. These tanks contain layers of sand, gravel, charcoal that will filter the dirt and other impurities from rain water. The water stored in the tank will then be transported to an underground pit which will help water to seep back into the ground. Rain harvesting solves the problem of depleting the ground water and droughts.