Read the given source carefully and answer the questions that follow :
FLOODS
Basic safety precautions to be taken :
- Listen to radio/TV for the latest weather bulletins and flood warnings. Pass on the information to others.
- Make a family emergency kit which should include, a portable radio/transistor, torch, spare batteries, a first aid box along with essential medicines, ORS, dry food items, drinking water, matchboxes, candles and other essential items.
- Keep hurricane lamp, ropes, rubber tubes, umbrella and bamboo stick in your house. These could be useful.
- Keep your cash, jewellery, valuables, important documents etc. in a safe place.
- If there is a flood, move along with your family members and cattle to safe areas like relief camps, evacuation centers, elevated grounds where you can take shelter.
- Turn off power and gas connections before leaving your house.
During Floods
- Don't enter into flood waters; it could be dangerous.
- Don't allow children to play in or near flood waters.
- Stay away from sewerage line, gutters, drains, culverts etc.
- Be careful of snakes; snakebites are common during floods.
- Stay away from electric poles and fallen power-lines to avoid electrocution.
- Don't use wet electrical appliances, get them checked before use.
- Eat freshly cooked and dry food. Always keep your food covered.
- Use boiled and filtered drinking water.
- Keep all drains, gutters near your house clean.
- Stagnation of water can breed vector/water-borne diseases. In case of sickness, seek medical assistance.
- Use bleaching powder and lime to disinfect the surroundings.
Read the given source carefully and answer the questions that follow :
FLOODS
Basic safety precautions to be taken :
- Listen to radio/TV for the latest weather bulletins and flood warnings. Pass on the information to others.
- Make a family emergency kit which should include, a portable radio/transistor, torch, spare batteries, a first aid box along with essential medicines, ORS, dry food items, drinking water, matchboxes, candles and other essential items.
- Keep hurricane lamp, ropes, rubber tubes, umbrella and bamboo stick in your house. These could be useful.
- Keep your cash, jewellery, valuables, important documents etc. in a safe place.
- If there is a flood, move along with your family members and cattle to safe areas like relief camps, evacuation centers, elevated grounds where you can take shelter.
- Turn off power and gas connections before leaving your house.
During Floods
- Don't enter into flood waters; it could be dangerous.
- Don't allow children to play in or near flood waters.
- Stay away from sewerage line, gutters, drains, culverts etc.
- Be careful of snakes; snakebites are common during floods.
- Stay away from electric poles and fallen power-lines to avoid electrocution.
- Don't use wet electrical appliances, get them checked before use.
- Eat freshly cooked and dry food. Always keep your food covered.
- Use boiled and filtered drinking water.
- Keep all drains, gutters near your house clean.
- Stagnation of water can breed vector/water-borne diseases. In case of sickness, seek medical assistance.
- Use bleaching powder and lime to disinfect the surroundings.
This is a source/stimulus passage on flood-safety precautions (before, during, and after a flood), drawn from CBSE's Disaster Management resource material. It carries no independent marks; it is the shared reading passage for the linked sub-questions (18.1, 18.2, 18.3) that follow, which test whether students can correctly identify and apply the specific precautions mentioned — e.g., water safety, food protection, and pre-departure actions during a flood warning.
Marking Scheme
- 1No standalone marks for the passage itself; marks are awarded in the linked sub-questions 18.1, 18.2 and 18.3 based on correctly located, source-based points.
Hint
Read the passage in its three natural sections — before leaving home, during the flood, and food/water hygiene — and match each sub-question strictly to the matching section.
Quick Oral Answer
This passage lists official flood-safety precautions in three stages — before, during, and regarding food/water hygiene — and serves as the source text for the sub-questions that follow.
Analysis & Explanation
Source-based questions in the Disaster Management unit test careful reading and application, not memorised definitions.
Concept
- Read the passage in three zones: precautions before a flood, precautions during a flood, and precautions on food/water hygiene — each sub-question typically draws from one specific zone.
Common mistakes
- Mixing precautions from different zones (e.g., giving a 'during flood' point when asked for a 'before leaving the house' point) costs marks even if the point is factually present in the passage.
Real-world application
- These are the same official precautions published by India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and used in CBSE's disaster-awareness modules, since India is highly flood-prone (Assam, Bihar, the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin) and disaster preparedness is treated as an essential life skill.
Common Mistakes
- 1Treating the passage itself as a question requiring a written answer, rather than as shared stimulus material for the sub-questions.
- 2Picking precautions from the wrong section of the passage for a given sub-question (e.g. citing a 'during flood' point when a 'before leaving home' point was asked).
- 3Paraphrasing so loosely that the specific keyword from the source (e.g. 'boiled and filtered water') is lost, reducing scored marks in source-based evaluation.
Interesting Facts
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India issues do's-and-don'ts guidelines for floods almost identical in structure to this passage, covering before, during and after phases.
Floods are the most frequently occurring natural disaster in India, affecting an average of over 7 million hectares of land annually according to NDMA data.
CBSE introduced Disaster Management as a compulsory component of the Social Science curriculum after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami highlighted gaps in public disaster preparedness.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does this passage carry marks on its own?
No, the passage is stimulus material; marks are allotted only to the linked sub-questions 18.1, 18.2, and 18.3 based on points correctly drawn from it.
Where do such flood-precaution passages come from?
They are adapted from official disaster-preparedness material such as NDMA guidelines, which CBSE includes to build practical civic/life-skills awareness among students.
How should students approach source-based Disaster Management questions?
Read the full passage once, mentally divide it into before/during/hygiene sections, then match each sub-question precisely to its corresponding section before answering.