Water pollution and Flood risks

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  • Created by: HannahBB
  • Created on: 25-03-15 18:15

Water pollution

Olivia: Rapid Urbanisation and industrialisation has caused huge problems in the environment of poorer countries. An example of one of these places thats has been effected in the Mithi River, Mumbai, India.

Eleanor: An example of one of these problems in how they get rid of waste. This has led to serious pollution in the Mithi River which flows through Mumbai. The Mithi River has been used as a watery waste disposal for a number of sources for a long time and has led to pollution.

Millie: Big industries within Mumbai dump their untreated industrial waste into the river.

Hannah: The airport also used to dump its untreated oil into the river.Millie: 800 million litres of untreated sewage goes into the river every day!

Hannah: Its also used for dumping other waste including food, cattle slurry, metals and old batteries some of which are toxic.

Olivia: In Dharavi which is located right next to the river also uses the river to wash out oil drums.

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Flood Risks

Hannah: The other problems all stem from the main problem which is the waste is dumped into the Mithi River. Plants grow onto of the waste which effects erosion and transportation because its harder for the water to move. It also causes flooding.

Eleanor: Which leads to a natural disaster. An example of this being July 2005. The Mithi River flooded after a metre of rain in just 24 hours. This caused nearly 25% of Mumbai to flood.

Millie:There was no transportation. Roads and railways were underwater for more than 24 hours, the airport was closed and there was no electricity for 3 days!

Olivia: The water was also neck high in some areas. The flood killed 406 people and cost $100 million. It also hit Dharavi first because its on swamp marsh by the river.

Hannah: However they have come up with ways to help and prevent this from happening again. One of these being the Mithi Project. The Mithi Project was set up to try and prevent future serious floods. Their aim is to rejuvenate the Mithi River which will stop disasters such as the one in July 2005 from happening again.

Eleanor: The river was also dug out allowing it to hold more water. It was also widen and obstacles such as rubbish were removed. The banks were smoothed near the meanders in the river. All of this allowing the water to flow more easily down the river.

Millie:However none of these changes made the river any cleaner so waste discharges from factories are now checked to make sure they are clean enough to go into the river.

Olivia: Now more public toliets have been built to reduce the amount of raw sewage dumped in the river. This will helped the Mithi River hugely as raw sewage was one of the main things being dumped into the river.

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