Environmental Management in Sheffield County in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Environmental Management Introduction In life, there are some calamities that the cause of their happening cannot be blamed on a person or organization as the source but they are caused as a result of change in environmental and climatic conditions. This are referred to as natural disaster. Some of the common natural disasters are, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, avalanches, lahars, tsunamis, heat waves, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes among others. The geographical location of a place will determine the natural calamity that is bound to happen in there, for instance in Europe where they experience summer they are mostly likely to experience heat waves, drought is however most common in most nations in Africa, the reason for this being the location of the continent in relation to the longitude and latitude. Purpose of the Report Floods are one of the most common natural disasters that affect most nations around the world. The purpose of this report will be to look at floods that affected the Sheffield County in United Kingdom (UK) in June 2007. The floods diverse effects on the population of the county, therefore the purpose of the report will be to look at the contributory factors causing the floods, the immediate impact and significant risks caused by the flooding. In addition to that, the report will identify the agencies involved and outlines their response and role during the event including the recovery phase. It will also evaluate the effectiveness of environmental management systems in place at the time. The lessons learnt and recommendations to prevent future flooding or mitigate its effects on the environment will also be discussed in the report. Environmental Management Walayat states that the floods that hit the county were the worst floods witnessed in over one hundred and fifty (150) years (Walayat). This was in 1864 when the Dale Dyke dam burst banks and caused a major destruction in the county. In addition to that, Walayat has given step to step procedure of the happenings of the day describing the perfect weather condition and there was no indication of likelihood of floods. For there to be an amicable co-existence between all the “players” that depend on the environment of existence, there has been a process that regulates environmental health, this is what is referred to as environmental management (Burtok, 2010). The purpose of environmental management plan is to help governments and environmental conservation organizations to come up with plans and policies that will ensure that the available natural resources are well conserved, by so doing, most natural disasters will be put under control. The causes of floods as a natural disaster are more or less similar despite the location that they occur. It is however important to note that this factors may be natural factors or manmade factors. Some of the causes include; Tropical Storm: Thinkquest has explained that, tropical storms are witnessed in the regions that are found along the tropical regions on the equator (Thinkquest, 2010). It further goes on to explain that such storms form over the warm waters of the tropics and as a result they are full of moisture. After the formation of this heavy clouds and the right conditions form, a heavy down pour usually follows and due to its intensity and strength, most it becomes too much for the streams and rivers to handle, causing water to overflow and produce inland floods. This can be said to be a natural cause. Other types of floods / storms that are caused naturally are tsunamis, seasonal and coastal flooding. Melting snow and ice that happens after winter, during the onset of summer has also been pointed out as one of the natural causes of floods, this can be said to be one of the causes of the Sheffield floods. Deforestation: Trees play a very important role in controlling and regulating the global temperatures as well as ensuring there is a stable biodiversity. In the recent past there has been campaign’s all over the world by various environmental conservation organizations to sensitive the public on the importance of a forestation. Patatunda has observed some of the effects of deforestations as being soil erosion, disruption of water cycle, lo of biodiversity, flooding and drought and finally climate change Putatunda (2000 – 2009). Other natural causes of floods include building of residential places and cultivating along river banks leaving the soil supple and exposed to floods. The health and hazardous risks caused by the floods that affected the Sheffield County in June, 2007 cannot be overlooked, the reason for this being this effects were hard to tackle due to unpreparedness by the local authorities. Water contamination and burst sewers was the most common site during the floods, this exposed the residents to higher chance of contacting waterborne diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, tuberculosis among others. It has been observed that Malaria is the world’s leading killer disease, mosquitoes also breed well in swampy and dump areas and when the region was hit with floods, it exposed most children, most of who were less than 5 years of age to higher chances of contracting malaria. Carbon monoxide poisoning has also been pointed out as another serious hazardous problem that comes along with floods, when floods occur most regions are affected by power shortages forcing the residents to use lighting solutions that produce a lot of carbon monoxide. For instance, fumes generated by lanterns, stoves, gasoline engines etc contain a lot of toxic fumes that affect people directly. This was the same scenario when the region was affected by floods in June 2007. When natural disasters happen, the loss both human life and property is hard to bear and as such most non-governmental organizations and parastatals join forces to help those who were directly and indirectly affected. This was the same scenario when Sheffield was hit by the worst floods in 150 years. Burma Rescue: This is one organization that played a very important and humane role in helping the people who were affected by floods in Sheffield. The organization supplied cleaning materials and food packages to more than 100 families in the Catcliffe and Winn Gardens (Star, 2008). This Christian organization also participated in fund raising in order to help the residents get some monetary assistance that in turn helped them in the rebuilding of their lives. WSWS: According to Stevens (2007), this is one non-governmental organization that greatly contributed to the restoring of normalcy in the region after the floods. Unlike the Burma Rescue that directly donated their contributions to the flood victims, the WSWS (World Socialist Web Site), act more like a coordination center for exercise. The WSWS worked closely with the office of the then UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, the military and other humanitarian organization around the globe. There are hundreds and hundreds of Christian and non-governmental organizations from all over the world that help in the relief services during and after the June, 2007 Sheffield floods. It is important to note that the rapid growth and development of internet communication technology (ICT) and the internet can be overlooked, the reason for this is that most well wishers from all over the world made their contributions online. The floods exposed the governments and environmentalists failure to successfully implement and execute environmental management plans that would have helped in either preventing excessive loss of lives and property as a result of the floods. This would have been possible by forewarning and putting on alert the residents of coming natural disasters. Hanlon et al (2008, p11) have given four main objectives that governments and organizations must address if they hope to have a sustainable environmental management plan and they are; implement social progress which recognizes the needs of everyone, efficient protection of the environment and resources, sensible use of natural resources and lastly maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment across all universe. Categories of pollutants that are not supposed to be released into the environment or if they have to be released they must purified so that they do not destroy the ecosystem have also been discussed (p18). It is important to note that not all pollutants are poisonous (toxic) there are also organic pollutants that if not taken care of can greatly contribute to environmental degradation. Hanlon et al further looks at different aspects that are related to environmental management and more specifically on the planning and strategies to protect the environment (p66 – 109). The roles of environmental agencies and government officials have also been focused on (p115). Recommendations Floods just like any other natural disaster cannot be prevented from happening, it is natural. As a recommendation strategic evacuation measures should be put in place by the respective governments and non-profit making organizations to ensure that incase of such an event or any other natural calamity occurs then they people affected should be airlifted and moved to safer ground. Before the above mentioned strategies are implemented, weather forecasting department should invest in modern state-of-the-art equipments to ensure that they are up to date with the happenings in relation to weather. They should then warn the public as to when and where a natural disaster may strike, this will prepare the residents to move to safer grounds. The above recommendations should however come after the government and the general public take and initiative of conserving the environment and reduce global warming. Deforestation should be discouraged and forest cover increased. Apart from a forestation, the release of toxic gases to the environment by factories and motor vehicles should be curbed. Laws should be formulated to ensure that no motor vehicle that has a “dirty” engine and one that releases toxic fumes is allowed on the road. The same regulations should be applied to factories and industries. It is only by so doing that global warming which has been attributed as being one of the main causes of current natural disasters and especially floods is reduced. Summation of the Report Environmental Management may appear as the easiest thing to execute in an organization; however this is not the case. For successful implementation of a environmental management plans, all stakeholders should work in unison to ensure the project is a success. This report has extensively discussed environmental management with special focus being on the floods that affected the Sheffield County of UK in June 2007. The causes of floods that rocked the region and those that affect other regions have also been discussed in the report; the main focus has been on natural and manmade causes. Key organizations that provided relief services to the flood victims have mentioned and the exact roles that they played. As a natural disaster, the negative effects of floods outnumber the positives, this have been extensively discussed in the report. The different approaches that can be taken by governments and non-government organizations to minimize the occurrence and damage caused by natural disasters have been mentioned in the report. Several recommendation on the best way to avoid global warming which is one of the main causes of natural disasters have been discussed in the last section of the paper. By conserving the environment, there will be no need for the government to spend millions of dollars in investing in disaster prevention tools and equipment. Reference List Burtok Rachel, 2010. What is Environmental Management? Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-environmental-management.htm David Hanlon MSc, GMIOSH, AIEMA MIFireE, 2008. Fire Service Manual Volume 2: Fire Service Operations Environmental Protection. London: TSO Publishers Putatunda Rita, 2000 – 2009. Causes and Effects of Deforestation. Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://www.buzzle.com/causes-and-effects-of-deforestation.html Sheffield Star, 2008. Floods aids Agency goes into Burma. Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://www.burmarescue.com/index.php?id=34&tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1209625200&tx_ttnews%5BpL%5D=2678399&tx_ttnews%5Barc%5D=1&tx_ttnews%5Bpointer%5D=23&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=422&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=35&cHash=ed0d38b9c3 Stevens Roberts, 2007. The Human Cost of the June Floods in Britain. Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/floo-j16.shtml Thinkquest, 2010. Flooding: Causes of Floods. Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/flooding/causesoffloods.shtml Walayat Nadeem, 2007. Sheffield Hit by Worst Flood in One Hundred and Fifty Years - A Black Swan Event! Retrieved June 29, 2010, from http://www.marketorade.co.uk/Article1371.html Read More