| By :
Adrianna Noton
Every time we experience excessive rainfall we immediately go on high alert because they are often accompanied by disastrous happenings. Such happenings include floods, mud slides, disease outbreaks and the destruction of crops in the fields. The latter is more catastrophic because it leads to food shortages. This is a threat to human survival because food is a basic commodity of life. Luckily, storm water management is a method of countering this disaster. Storm water management is a process of controlling the blizzard before it causes damage to us. Storm runoff generally occurs when there is no absorption by the ground because of varrious reasons. This will however require to be drained appropriately and be put into proper use wherever possible. This water then requires to be treated to avert the danger of it contaminating other major sources. The water will normally get contaminated with chemicals from the fields industrial waste and debris along the way. The danger of discharging these before it is treated can be hazardous. The blizzard runoff management aims to contain the effects of this excess while maintaining its quality. This process helps to protect the environment by preventing these pollutants from finding their way into the underground sources and other bodies like rivers and streams. These are known to hold marine life which could be put at risk if contaminated water is allowed to flow directly into them. The excess also causes marine life to erode, distorting the rivers course. Most cases of rivers breaking their river banks are as result of this runoff. The construction of retention ponds to treat polluted blizzard runoffs is an effective method that is used all over the world to counter this disaster. Though there are man made solutions towards these problems human activity has also been cited as a major contributor of this menace. The lack of proper guidelines in the construction industry and poor drainage systems are known to contribute a lot towards storm runoff rising above controllable levels. The construction of large portions of impervious surfaces like roads, runways, and parking lots aggravates the conditions in urban areas. This explains why floods are common occurrences in major cities in the world. The trapped runoff water should be treated and released in a controlled rate as this helps to create more room for storage incase the need arises again to trap the excess runoff. The construction of sustainable pavements and the use of underground retention tanks has been effectively used in certain cities to curb the effects of runoffs. The control of soil erosion is also a good method of helping to contain the runoff that would otherwise find its way into the rivers. Soil absorbs a lot and this helps pollutants that are found in the farms from reaching the water sources thus contaminating them too. The cost of storm water management is meager compared to the damage that this runoff is capable of causing. Damages could range from loss of usable land and the capital cost of repair on the destroyed infrastructure. Proper planning is the solution to these problems.
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