“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark”
This year’s monsoon rains have had a devastating effect in Malaysia with close to 200,000 people forced to abandon their homes because of flooding.
What was the cause of the flooding? Heavier than usual rains are of course a major factor but so too is the effect of human development of areas prone to flooding, as is the surrounding deforestation that continues at a worrying pace in Malaysia.
I am lucky that our house is up in the hills but even here the impact of human development is easy to see. The rivers are full of mud that is washed down from sites cleared for houses or roads – with no vegetation to ‘hold’ the soil the run off erodes the earth – and where does all this sediment end up? Unfortunately down stream the rivers will get shallower (the soil with settle on the river floor where the river flows more slowly) and, therefore the river is more prone to burst its banks during heavy rain. We are also seeing more landslides where people have cleared the slopes of trees and vegetation as, with no roots to hold the soil, it is more prone to slip.
The trees and vegetation (that are cleared to make way for roads and homes) are nature’s natural sponges; their roots not only hold the soil but absorb water during the rains. Without them, surface run off increases and with it the risk of flooding.
I see a lot of developments where engineering tactics (i.e. man made drains, soil support systems) are employed to combat the impact of heavy rains but if we tip nature too much off balance these ‘band aids’ to compensate for the damage we’ve done to the surrounding countryside will be of little help.
As an example, a neighbour of ours who is developing a plot began by cutting down every tree and plant on his land. The result: land slides (his concrete drains were literally washed down the slope). He might blame the land slides on the rains, but before he cleared the land there were no landslides…
As for the poor people who have been forced to abandon their homes because of the floods, both food and water are a problem for them. You might think that water would be easy enough to find during a flood but the problem is to find clean water that is safe to drink.
Which brings us to this video on finding clean water in the jungle because, during the rains, the run off into the rivers is not only full of mud but also contains any animals droppings that are washed down with it (or even dead animals).
Hi Paul,
I Wish you plenty of green forest 🙂 and other cool things, too.
Great video, thanks for posting.
I never saw that tip of shoving a spike to break the nodes of bamboo!
That’s great, as I often use bamboo as a container (sheath, bottle, box, pot…)
Very interesting way to track back to the tributary.
Will definitely give it a go.
Have fun!
Hi Wawa,
Thanks as always for the comment and glad you like the bamboo spike idea. It’s really quite easy to break through the nodes as they aren’t that strong inside.
Good luck finding the spring heads…they are not always there but often enough for it to be worth while looking for them.
Cheers!
Paul
Hi Paul,
As always, very informative.
In the service, one of the ways we were taught, without using filters, was two use two clear plastic bottles. One of the bottles will be filled with the ‘dirty’ water or our urine; and then we attach it with the other clear plastic bottle (mouth to mouth).
We then place the bottles at a slight angle under the hot sun, where the bottle with the dirty water is at the below and the empty one at the top. The heat from the sun will cause evaporation and the evaporated water will be collected in the ’empty’ bottle once it cools down.
How fast we can harvest the water using this method, will depend on how much heat we can get from the sun.
Or find a bush/shrub/low-lying plant and wrap a plastic bag around the leaves and leave it overnight to collect the dew to drink.
Hi Shafie,
Many thanks or the comment and tips and sorry for my slow reply (I have been away). I’ve seen the method of water evaporation using two bottles in books before and thought about giving it a go here, however in the jungle you don’t always find places with lots of sun whereas (usually) streams are easy to find. Still it is a good method to know about and I think when I saw it the context was a beach survival situation and the advice was to bury the recipient bottle in the sand (so that it is kept cool) while leaving the dirty water bottle exposed to the sun.
As for the dew collection method it is another I haven’t tried out but saw someone on Youtube trying it – it didn’t seem as though he got very much water from this method. Anyway, I’ll have to try them out for myself when I get a moment and thanks again for the tips.
Cheers!
Paul