Impact of disasters on development projects

IMPACT OF DISASTERS ON DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Disasters derail development. According to the United Nations (UN), over the past two decades, disasters from natural hazards have affected more than 4 billion people, claimed more than 1 billion lives, and caused almost U.S. $ 2 trillion in economic losses. Disasters have a devastating effect on development. Apart from loss of human life and economy, the psychological impact of disasters on the mental health of the affected people leads to low attendance at work and retards the economic growth of the region in general. The impact of disasters on specific development projects is discussed below-

IMPACT ON DAMS

The drive for economic growth has exposed populations to increased risk.Destruction has been exacerbated by the development of dams in fragile ecosystems. Hence, disasters reveal boundaries and limits to development.All countries suffer from disasters but their impact is felt to the maximum extent in poor countries.In case of development project involved in construction of dams, the disasters like flash floods, earthquakes and landslides can delay the project and adversely affect the finances allocated to the project as additional expenditure will be required in operations like clearing of debris, redesigning the project to suit the changed landscape, salvaging the usable construction material and disposal of incomplete structure. The ongoing progress of the project is pushed back and the project is delayed considerably.

IMPACT ON EMBANKMENTS

An embankment is a wall of brick or stone built to prevent flooding. The natural disasters that can affect its development are Earthquakes, landslides, floods as all these disasters result in affecting the surface of the Earth. Earthquakes destabilise the foundation of the embankment causing it to collapse. Floods may weaken the bonds between the bricks and stones by dissolving the cement or water may act as a lubricant between stones causing the stones to slide against each other leading to collapse of the structure. Flood water may be absorbed into bricks and swelling of bricks may lead to cracking and ultimately collapse of the structure. Earthquakes cause embankments to collapse as the entire structure is built on land. Landslides cause a section of land to slide over another and this disturbance of land also collapses the embankments.

IMPACT ON CHANGES IN LAND-USE
Land-use refers to a particular purpose for which a parcel of land is used. Change in land-use refers to using a particular area of land for a different purpose than which it was being used. Examples of this are:

1. Clearing a forest area for residential purpose
2. Clearing a forest area for agriculture
3. Clearing a residential area for industries
4. Clearing agricultural land for industries etc

Disasters will have a profound impact on any change in land-use. This happens primarily because the local community will have experienced the area and will have the knowledge regarding the do's and don'ts in specific areas as a result of previous experience. When ever there is a change in land-use pattern as listed above takes place activities of the new community might not be in synchronicity with the ecological cycle of resource withdrawal. This might result in disasters.Change in land-use has been the most common factor in recent natural disasters.Few examples are listed below:

• Mangroves in coastal areas act as natural barriers to strong winds and storm surge associated with land falling tropical cyclones. Cutting these mangroves for agriculture removes the natural barrier and thereby increases the intensity of land falling cyclones.
• Mangrove ecosystems along the mithi river and mahim creek in Mumbai were destroyed and replaced with haphazard construction. Sewage and garbage dump also destroyed the mangroves. The Mumbai floods of July 26, 2005 is a classic example of modifying land-use contributing to a major disaster where more than 1000 lives were lost.
• Chennai floods of 2015 and floods in Bengaluru and Hyderabad have demonstrated that haphazard change in land-use has become a major source of disasters caused by natural hazards
• Major floods in Uttarakhand in 2014 and Kashmir have shown that land-use change and unplanned development have been the real cause of large-scale disasters.