Humans cannot live without water as every cell in our bodies needs it; we use it for personal hygiene, food preparation, general cleaning, industry, power and agriculture. Water is our friend and we need to look after and conserve this precious resource of ours.
When Water is Not Our Friend
Water is not always our friend though; sometimes it can cause mayhem and destruction. Drinking water and other water for our general use is always welcome and we go to great lengths to ensure that we have access to it as our lives depend on it.
Sometimes, however, Mother Nature goes a bit out of control and this can result in adverse weather conditions that can be very dangerous for everything in its path, such as:
The 1953 Dutch Flood Disaster
The 1953 Dutch flood disaster happened during a storm on the night of January 31 – February 1, when winds reached up to 150 km/h.
The floods of 1916 led to very strong dykes being built to counteract the weather and prevent flooding, but it seems that these just gave people a false sense of security. Many people did not have televisions in those days, and communications was limited as there were no night-time radio broadcasts like there are today, so thousands of citizens had no forewarning of the danger.
The storms caused the ebb tide to stay out and when spring tide was reached at around 2am Netherlands was flooded. Dykes in more than 60 locations across three provinces broke through, the southern islands were almost entirely flooded, and 1 835 people died, 140 000 poultry drowned, 72 000 people were evacuated from their homes, and in excess of200 000 hectares of land was flooded.
Spanish Waste Water Spill
The dam of the mining residual tank of a pyrite mine in Aznalcollar, Spain ruptured on 25 April, 1998, releasing contaminated wastewater and sludge. The Guadiamar River was polluted with this runoff which contained heavy metals such as lead, zinc, cadmium, and copper.
This pollution covered an area of 4.634 hectares; 1.931 hectares was contaminated with acidic water and 2.703 hectares with sludge. This pollution greatly affected the forest and cultivation lands in the area, causing great hardships and financial problems for the local farmers. There was a huge mortality rate of the fish population and of the bird population who died from eating polluted fish. It took a whole month for the water to recover.
Remember, our bodies need water constantly, so drink water as often as possible, but make sure that the water that you drink is free of pollutants and toxins.
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