When there is a shortage of rainfall, both people and their livestock face trouble. When there are downpours there is also trouble. If there is more rain than required then the land is flooded. Whether its droughts, or flooding, it affects respective regions and the people’s livelihood all the same. The flooding affects buildings, factories, roads, bridges and farms. This can cause dairy production to grind to a become halt and food costs to rise. They also create health problems for both people and animals, and can cause social problems and other dangers.
Due to last week’s torrential downpours that lasted for days in both Mon and Karen states in southern Burma many areas have been flooded. The Irrawaddy Delta, Rangoon, and Pegu divisions have been affected inundated with water. Parts of Rangoon-Moulmein-Tavoy and Moulmein-Myawaddy highways have been damaged by the flooding and subsequent landslides.
Experts say that the root causes of the flooding and landslides are caused by the destruction of environment. Deforestation has made the mountains barren. This has caused erosion, creating landslides in the wet season and clogged uphill streams with loose sediment blocking the water routes.
Dam projects that have diverted the water flow have also affected the local environment. Deforestation has paid a role in increasing the earth’s temperature and led to water shortages. Unusually high rain fall in the wet season have caused severe damage to seasonal plantation. This flooding that also affects factories, roads and homes costing a lot of money in repairs.
Most of human’s innovations have damaged our ecosystem, experts have already warned. Deforestation of valuable teak woods by the former and current Burmese government have caused huge environment devastation.
In order to prevent things getting even worse some environmental groups encourage the replanting of 10 trees for every one tree that is logged. Training on forest and environment protection is necessary for locals.
We urgently need to start preserving, protecting and safeguarding our environment today to prevent more flooding and draughts from happening. If we don’t take immediate action there will be much more damage to our environment in the future.
