By 2050, more than 500 cities will sink into the ocean due to land subsidence. We generally thought that cities would be submerged due to sea level rise due to melting glaciers. But now the world is facing a new danger called land subsidence. What land fall is that.. let’s see..
The concept of urbanization has made the world new and modern. But excessive urbanization has now posed a great danger to us. We don’t take into consideration that the overcrowding of people in urban areas causes various natural degradations. We are hurting the earth by developing infrastructure without realizing the danger. As a result of that, the phenomenon of land subsidence surrounds us now.
According to the United Nations, 68 percent of the world’s forested areas will be urbanized by the year 2050. No doubt it will result in a far worse fate. Water supply is an important infrastructure of urbanization.
When people lived in rural areas, they mostly depended on water bodies for their internal and external water needs. So the need for water was very little and frugal. But now with water for all policy every house opens the tap and water pours out. Land subsidence is the price we are going to pay for this convenience.
Bore wells were introduced only in the 1870s. Our era of destruction began when man began to drill the earth and build a pipe through which to draw underground water. At present, millions of pipes are buried underground in close proximity to urban areas. Every day millions of liters of ground water is absorbed through it. Due to this, the stability of the earth is becoming a question.
We get water from underground aquifers. Due to this, the water in the aquifer will decrease rapidly. If the water level decreases, the surface soil above it will go down. If it descends like that the land will start losing its height. Aquifer decline is one way nature will correct itself. How, when it rains, rainwater seeps into the ground and fills the aquifer. Thus the aquifer decline was somewhat balanced.
But in urban areas we build concrete buildings and cover the land around the buildings with cement. Due to this, when it rains, the rainwater does not go into the ground but runs through canals and gets wasted in the sea. Thus the collapsing aquifer cannot balance itself. That’s why Occupyre is collapsing so fast. Due to this the surface slope is also going down and the ground level is decreasing.
According to a study, the land is currently subsiding at a rate of 6 to 10 millimeters per year. This is what geologists call land subsidence. If this continues, within 30 years most of the world’s coastal areas will have their land level below sea level. If that happens, the sea water will enter the land and land areas will be submerged in water. By the year 2050, six of the world’s most important cities will be completely submerged in the sea, alarm bells are ringing.
Our Mumbai is also in the list of important cities that are going to sink into the sea. Already, the average ground level in Thailand has dropped by one meter. In Italy, the ground level has fallen by 3 meters. Miami, an important coastal city of America, has experienced a land level fall of 6 meters. Especially Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is at the top of the list of the fastest sinking hells. The area surrounding the Waladona Masjid Mosque on the seafront in Jakarta has been in public use since 2001. But now the entire area is surrounded by sea water and people have left.
As Jakarta is on the list of sinking cities, the Indonesian government is on the verge of relocating the capital of Indonesia. Similarly, many cities such as Miami in the United States, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, most cities in Thailand, and the West African city of Lagos are also on this list.
This landslide is a very important example of how bad nature’s response can be if we mess with it.. If we don’t wake up now, no wonder if the whole world sinks into the ocean in a few years.. Usharaiyya.. Ushar
Correspondent: Rosario Roy
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