How Natural Disasters Affect Water
By Maya Rogne and Mikayla Utnehmer
What's the Issue?
People are dependent on water for many reasons. Hydroelectric power, brushing our teeth, watering crops, and keeping our bodies hydrated are all uses of water. Of all the water on Earth, humans are only able to utilize 3% of it. So what would happen if our water got contaminated? Crops would die, humans would become ill, animals would get sick, etc. These are just examples of some of the horrible side affects that come with natural disasters. Natural disasters increase the amount of water being wasted. Throughout this poster we will provide examples of how natural disasters affect our water, and possible solutions on how to fix this issue.
How Floods Affect Water
Water is affected by floods in lots of ways . Some examples of those are many pollutants such as farm waste, detergents, chemicals from processing plants, and fertilizers from crops, are swept downstream and deposited on land. These large deposits pollute drinking water and farmland.
How Hurricanes Affect Water
Water is also affected by hurricanes in lots of negative ways. An example of that would be when hurricane Sandy hit the eastern seaboard in 2012, many waterways were contaminated by raw sewage pollution from flooded water treatment plants.
How Earthquakes Affect Water
In 2004 the Sumatra earthquake caused a gigantic tsunami in the Indian ocean. This natural disaster caused salt water contamination in drinking water and killed millions of acres of farmland.
How Volcanic Eruptions Affect Water
Volcanic eruptions have been shown to cause pollution in water as well as the air. In addition to this the lava contaminated vegetation and the animals grazing on the contaminated vegetation. The Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii causes acid rain when it erupts, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Possible Solutions
A possible solution to this issue is that we could place valuable water supplies in areas that are less susceptible to natural disasters. This way we can strategically place water towers in areas that have a less likely chance of being corrupted by a natural disaster. This would reduce the amount of damage and contaminated water in many areas. Ultimately this would help water conservation and diminish the amount of water waste.