Writing about Construction Sequence of a Storage Ponds Research Paper

Writing about Construction Sequence of a Storage Ponds - Research Paper Example The stored water can be used for irrigation, and also fighting fire.But for the Forest Hills Metropolitan District Storage Pond Development, the new storage ponds would be used for â€Å"Water Augmentation purposes (releasing water from the ponds back into the Bear Creek watershed for use by water users downstream with senior in the event of a forest fire. It is however important that the basic procedure in the construction of a pond is followed so that the owner can come up with a top quality pond that is easy to maintain (Hyde & Perry 5). The first step in this process is finding a good location for the pond. This process is more important than the actual pond construction. Most sites are unsuitable for pond construction and whether the construction is inch perfect or not, the pond will fail if the site is not good enough. It is therefore important to analyze the safety of the area, topography, geological makeup, features of the drainage area and the water holding ability of the s oil in that particular area. Pond safety When planning for a pond, do not ignore the chances of the pond failing and in addition to the damage that can be caused by the rapidly released water. It is therefore important to locate the pond in an area where such a failure cannot cause damage to infrastructure or risk the lives of people or livestock. If it has to be in such an area, it is important to seek the services of an engineer who can come up with a design that is safe and fail proof. The site should not have any underground cables or pipelines as they can be broken or cause injury during excavation. This should also be the case to areas with electricity lines crossing above as they could be caught by a fishing line if they hang low. Water bodies attract different sorts of people from children to adults, this applies to ponds as well. It is therefore important to make the pond safe for activities like fishing. The pond owner should have any stumps removed so that boat riders sho uld not have any trouble when having fun in the pond (Hyde & Perry 7). Soils in the Pond The texture of soil can vary depending of the depth and might change strongly over a short distance. For the site to be appropriate for a pond, the soil has to be able to hold water. The soil layer should be thick in order to prevent excessive leaks, clay soil is recommended for pond construction since their texture is good and even better when it is a mixture of sand and clay. Sands with course textures do not hold water and are not recommended. A mixture of sand and gravel is even worse. In case a part of the pond has poor soil, it can be made impervious by adding betonies clay, this is however an expensive affair and it is advisable that an alternative pond site is chosen (Hyde & Perry 10).The profile of the soil beneath the damn should be studied as well because if it is not impervious, the water can seep away in the long run and therefore the foundation of the pond should be sealed using im pervious soil to make seepage impossible. Geology Building a pond in areas with limestone deposits is risky since the area might have invisible crevices which could make the pond to leak, such areas even have granular soils which leak even when wet. Such sites should have a thorough investigation done of them so that it is certain that they can hold water. Topography The cost of construction of a pond mainly depend on the lay of the land since if a pond with a high storage volume is needed, the site should have a low earth fill so that excavation work does not cost too much. A site with two ridges towering over either sides is good since it allows a large area to be flooded with ease. These areas also reduce the chances of some areas of the pond having shallow water. Excavated ponds are

TO WHAT EXTENT CAN CORRUPTION BE BLAMED FOR UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN Dissertation

TO WHAT EXTENT CAN CORRUPTION BE BLAMED FOR UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA, A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA - Dissertation Example Introduction The biggest obstacle to the achievement of development objectives in Africa is corruption. As the world is rapidly advancing towards becoming a global village, a large percentage of people in Africa do not have the opportunity of benefiting from the fruits of economic and industrial development that is happening across the world, primarily because of the widespread corruption that prevails in most African countries. Africa is blessed with a major percentage of the world’s natural resources and people from the continent have made their mark in several areas such as science, technology and medicine. Despite such developments, things such as cars and television continue to be extraordinary luxuries amongst people of Africa. Millions continue to live in extreme poverty and a vast majority is unemployed despite being educated. People are deprived of clean drinking water and educational facilities are not available for all children. There have been frequent instances of civil war i n several parts of the continent, while millions have been dying from diseases that cannot be controlled because of inadequate financial resources for healthcare. The main reason for the underdevelopment in Africa is the high level of corruption that prevails in the entire continent and continues to remain unchecked. This paper examines the extent to which corruption can be blamed for Africa’s underdevelopment by specifically referring to the case of Nigeria. In doing so, the internal and external causes of underdevelopment in Nigeria will be critically analyzed. The aim of this paper is to give an analytical perspective in order to understand why African countries have been unable to develop and to understand why sub-Saharan Africa has the reputation of being the most corrupt area in the world. The paper will also highlight the concepts and contexts of political corruption as the main cause of underdevelopment in many African countries. Chapter 1. Underdevelopment and Corruption in Africa Corruption is understood as acts of wrong doings with the objective of making money, which implies that the extreme desire to make money is the basic reason for corruption. According to Auyo (1999), corruption is the termination or demolition of a disposition or a perverted act relative to changing anyt hing from its initial status of purity. In simple terms, corruption is said to be practiced by deviating from the normal way of doing things. In the modern world, corruption is understood as the misappropriation of public money, enticement, theft or any forms of attempts to embezzle or to illegally gain or abuse assets or authority. Therefore, corruption is revealed through perverted acts or through obliteration or veracity while discharging public duty. Thus, corruption is considered a psychological or social condition whereby the ethical and correct ways of performing one’s duties are abandoned because of some kind of internal or external stimulus (Bayley, 1966). Although the words corruption and fraud are mostly used in referring to such practices, it is important to understand the differences amongst the two terms. Corruption is related with misusing public authority and is mostly related with acts committed by government functionaries, while fraud is an occurrence that c an happen in both the private and public sectors (Isa, 2009). Both corruption and fraud have proved to be severe problems that have been hampering economic growth in Africa (Sandholtz and Gray, 2003). Most efforts initiated by government and nongovernment agencies to tackle the problem have not yielded good results. For the last several years, Nigeria has been rated amongst the three most corrupt states in the world. In attempts to combat corruption, the