Question

Based on this excerpt from John Snow's "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera," what is the meaning of the word morbid?

Answer 1

Floods are caused in water bodies as also on land. When rains are very heavy or last for many days water bodies may receive more water than they can hold. Water then floods the water body, and also overflows its banks. The flooding of the water body then causes the land beyond the water body, which is otherwise dry, to get flooded.

Floods are, of course, a natural phenomenon. But man-made factors are also responsible for the incidence of floods. For example, when trees are felled, and forests are cleared indiscriminately there is ecological damage. As trees help in holding the soil, when they are cut off the top soil becomes loose and gets easily washed away when there are rains. This leads to silting of water bodies like lakes and rivers, and subsequently to flooding. The towns and cities in the vicinity of the water bodies, that are otherwise dry, also experience floods then.

Floods are also an outcome of poor drainage systems in modern urban areas where there is a high density of human population. The cities’ drains get clogged by the huge amounts of domestic garbage that also includes plastic waste. As plastic is non-biodegradable it remains without getting decomposed. When there are torrential and continuous rains for some days the drains get totally choked leading to floods in the cities.

Floods cause loss to life and property