GS3 PYQs (Mains Answer Writing): Man - Made Disasters | UPSC Mains: Internal Security & Disaster Management PDF Download

Q1: Dam failures are always catastrophic, especially on the downstream side, resulting in a colossal loss of life and property. Analyze the various causes of dam failures. Give two examples of large dam failures.
Ans: A dam failure refers to the uncontrolled release of water from a reservoir through a dam, resulting from structural failures or deficiencies in the dam. India, ranked third in building large dams, faces the potential risk of releasing substantial water, posing dangers to people and property downstream.
Causes of Dam Failures:

• Overtopping: Poor spillway design can cause overtopping, especially during heavy rainfall, leading to the reservoir filling too high.
• Foundational Defects: Slope instability can result in water seepage beneath the dam.
• Operational Failures: Valve and conduit failures can cause improper functioning, leading to inadequate water discharge.
• Geological Instability: Tectonic-induced events like landslides and earthquakes can pose a threat to dam structures.
• Ageing Dams: Increasing flooding frequency and environmental changes can accelerate the ageing process of dams.
• Structural Failure: Inadequate design, construction materials, or maintenance can lead to dam collapse.

Examples of Large Dam Failures:

• Machchu II Dam Failure (1979): Due to heavy rainfall and improper design, the Machchu II Dam in Gujarat burst, causing a catastrophic flood and claiming over 2,000 lives.
• Tiware Dam Failure (2019): Located in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, the Tiware dam breached due to excessive rainfall, flooding seven villages and resulting in several casualties.

Initiatives like the Dam Safety Act 2021 and the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) represent positive steps toward preventing catastrophic dam failures in India.

Q2: The novel coronavirus outbreak has become a worldwide disaster. How far is it correct to say such frequent viral outbreaks are man-made disasters?
Ans: Introduction
The ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak has resulted in thousands of deaths worldwide, surpassing the SARS outbreak. The 2018 Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala, frequent dengue, malaria in North-West India, Japanese Encephalitis cases in Bihar, Ebola in Western Africa substantiate these rising cases of viral outbreaks, especially in under-developed countries.
A disaster is a sudden occurrence of an event resulting in huge losses – lives, resources.

• Reasons for viral outbreaks as man-made disasters
• Inefficient health infrastructure results in high mortality: Lack of medicines, doctors etc. lead to inaccessibility to timely treatment as evident in the case of dengue mortality in India even with available treatment. This is mainly due to public health expenditure and income inequality.
• Lack of Research and Development: Currently, for such outbreaks, countries depend on international bodies like WHO to develop vacancies/treatments due to lack of internal capacities like in case of Ebola virus. This leads to the unavailability of the local and immediate response to the outbreak.
• Lack of effective monitoring and quarantine measures results in rapid and uncontrolled spread of virus. Knee-Jerk measures employed at times of public health emergencies result in mobilisation of huge quantum of resources in a short time, thus affecting other sectors of the economy.
• Social and economic reasons due to high-density urbanisation, increasing globalisation, changing lifestyle, increasing human-wildlife (fruit bats in case of Nipah) contact result in the transmission of zoonotic diseases.
• Since most cases have underlying reasons emanating from man’s changing role in the environment, they can be controlled by addressing such reasons.
• Following protocols with established capacity to tackle sudden outbreak like in case of Global Emergency declaration by WHO.
• Increasing investment in research and development – biotechnology like Human Genome Project, medical infrastructure, especially in public institutions in underdeveloped countries, aid and co-operation by developed countries.
• Effective monitoring: robust disease surveillance system – case of Delhi in bringing down dengue cases, implement laws strictly, especially related to wildlife, environment and health.
• Special resource allocation for handling emergency situations like Contingency Fund.

Conclusion 
Though viral outbreaks can take the form of man-made disasters. Such situations can be managed given man’s own ability to identify both point and nonpoint sources resulting in such disasters and since most of them accrue due to man’s own created ecosystem, they can be mitigated.