State two ways in which multi-purpose river projects have ironically worsened the very problems they were built to solve.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:31 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Two ways multi-purpose projects ironically worsened the problems they were built to solve:
- Floods: Dams built to control floods have actually triggered floods due to excessive sedimentation in the reservoir, and have mostly failed to control floods during heavy rainfall.
- Soil degradation: Projects meant to support agriculture led to sedimentation of floodplains, depriving them of natural silt (a fertiliser), and caused salinisation of soil due to water-intensive cropping patterns — worsening land degradation.
Source: Chapter 3 — Multi-Purpose River Projects and Integrated Water Resources Management
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Explanation
The examiner expects you to pick two distinct ironic/contradictory outcomes directly from the text. The most scoreable pair is:
- Dams built to control floods ended up causing floods (via sedimentation in the reservoir).
- Projects built to help agriculture worsened land degradation (loss of silt on floodplains; salinisation).
Avoid vague answers like "they cause displacement" — that is a disadvantage, not an ironic worsening of the same problem. The keyword "ironically" signals the examiner wants a contradiction between intent and outcome.