Relevance : GS Paper II Category: GS 2(Polity), GS 3(Disaster Management) 1200 summarized to 400 Introduction The Central government has followed a top-down approach in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. How…
President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement had created a lot of uncertainty, with the US being a major carbon emitter. A successful GCAS 2018 will now help reassure the international community that this will not decelerate the “decarbonisation” movement.
The recent deaths of six sewerage workers in Delhi in two separate incidents form part of a continuing series of such deaths. The pressure of poverty forces these workers to descend almost bare-bodied into sewers full of filth and excreta, fully knowing that they may asphyxiate to death as have many others like them.
Kerala bravely endured the monsoon storms, but it would be a mistake to think that disasters of this magnitude are “once in a hundred year” events.
The Dam Safety Bill of 2018 addresses the concerns raised about the safety of over 5,200 large dams in India and about 450 which are under construction.
Kerala’s was undoubtedly a man-made tragedy—the inability to store and drain water efficiently and the assault on the Western Ghats ecology over the years, among other factors, had devastating consequences.
The material loss due to the Kerala floods has been estimated at Rs. 26,000 crore, but beyond this there has been an immense loss of natural, human, and social capital for which no estimates are available.
With the floodwaters finally receding in Kerala, a number of experts and politicians have stated various possible reasons for the tragedy. Some have blamed dams, which were all opened when they were nearly full, causing heavy floods downstream and greatly affecting the lives of the people there.
The tragedy in Kerala has highlighted the dangers of excess water accumulation in dams. More than 20 dams released water that cascaded down the hills, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
There has been a debate on whether foreign assistance should be accepted for relief and reconstruction work following the devastating floods in Kerala.
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