causes of drought essay

What is drought? Causes, impact & countries most affected

East Africa is facing its worst drought in 40 years, with over 1.4 million people displaced by drought in Somalia alone. Learn more about drought, what causes it, and how we can support those most impacted.

Around the world, droughts are becoming increasingly common due to rising global temperatures — and have serious impacts, leading to crop failures, famine and malnutrition. 

East Africa , for example, is facing its worst drought in years, affecting 40 million people. Many are facing near-famine and malnutrition because of the drought’s impact on food supplies. 

Learn more about drought, what causes it, and what the IRC is doing to help in East Africa. 

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What is drought .

Drought is caused by a lack of rainfall, causing serious water shortages. It can be fatal.  

More specifically, drought is defined by a period of unusually dry weather caused by low rainfall and high temperatures. It is also defined in terms of the impact on agriculture when crops fail due to lack of moisture in soil, leading to food shortages and serious human impacts such as famine in severe cases. 

Unlike other extreme weather events that are more sudden, like earthquakes or hurricanes, droughts happen gradually. But they can be just as deadly as other weather hazards—if not more so. Drought has affected more people in the last 40 years than any other natural disaster.  

The severity of drought worsens over time. When it arrives, drought can last for weeks, months, or years—sometimes, the effects last decades. 

What causes drought?  

Droughts can be triggered by natural causes such as weather patterns. But increasingly they are caused by human activity. 

Human causes of drought 

Climate change : Global warming makes extreme weather more likely. It can make places drier by increasing evaporation. When land becomes so dry, an impermeable crust forms, so when it does rain, water runs off the surface, meaning sometimes flash flooding occurs. 

Deforestation : Plants and trees capture and release water into the atmosphere, which creates clouds and then rain. Scientists have observed a relationship between deforestation and drought. 

Agriculture : Intensive farming contributes to deforestation in the first instance but can also affect the absorbency of the soil, meaning it dries out much more quickly. 

High water demand : There are several reasons water demand might outweigh the supply, including intensive agriculture and population spikes. Also, high demand upstream in rivers (for dams or irrigation) can cause drought in lower, downstream areas. 

Other natural causes of drought 

Changes in ocean temperatures : El Niño and La Niña are climate patterns that can cause drought in some parts of the world. El Niño is characterized by warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which can lead to drought in the southwestern United States and southern Africa. La Niña is characterized by cooler-than-average ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which can lead to drought in Australia and Indonesia. 

The jet stream : The jet stream is a band of strong winds that flows high in the atmosphere. Changes in the jet stream can cause drought in some areas by bringing in dry air from other parts of the world. 

How are people impacted by drought? 

Risk of famine .

Drought causes food insecurity when crops fail. When a substantial part of the population can no longer access food this is known as famine and results in widespread acute malnutrition, disease and death across the affected region. 

East Africa is currently experiencing widespread food shortages and near-famine, with millions of children under 5 suffering from severe acute malnutrition. 

Malnutrition 

A lack of nutritious food caused by food shortages leads to acute malnutrition. Children suffering from malnutrition are a high risk category. Deprived of essential vitamins and minerals required for their proper growth, they are prone to disease, severe developmental delays and even death.   

Effective treatment for children suffering from malnutrition exists, but often does not reach those most in need. The IRC has developed a simplified process for treating malnutrition in order to reach more children with lower costs. 

Increase in diseases 

Drought affects vital access to clean drinking water. This can lead to people drinking contaminated water, which brings about outbreaks of diseases like cholera and typhoid. These diseases can also spread in places with poor sanitation, another side-effect of having no clean water. 

It can cause wildfires 

Dry conditions can cause wildfires that burn remaining vegetation and endanger homes. Fires can also impact air quality and exacerbate chronic lung conditions. 

People are displaced 

People must travel further to find clean water. This usually falls to women and children, who must sacrifice other work and school to carry out an incredibly physical task. 

Without access to clean water or food, many must permanently leave their homes in order to survive. The World Health Organization states , “Water scarcity impacts 40% of the world’s population, and as many as 700 million people are at risk of being displaced as a result of drought by 2030.” 

Related : Meet the people displaced by drought in Somalia  

It can feed into conflict 

Research has also found that drought exacerbates existing conflicts. People migrating en masse from areas of drought and famine can result in increased political tensions and conflict due to increased competition for resources. There is evidence that drought contributed to the conflict in Syria , for example. 

Flash flooding 

Flooding can also be a risk in the same geographical areas that suffer from drought. 

Rain after a drought sounds like it ought to be a good thing, but after a prolonged period of dryness, sudden heavy rainfall can lead to hazardous flash flooding like that seen in Pakistan.  

This is because droughts leave the ground hard and baked, with little to no plant cover and low soil quality, which prevents rain from saturating the ground. Instead, when waterfalls in a large quantity and at speed—like in a thunderstorm—it runs over the parched ground. 

Which countries are in a drought? 

Droughts can occur all around the world. However, the effects of drought vary by region.  

Droughts bring the most risk to areas with high-pressure weather systems that are already prone to desertification. Developing countries are also more vulnerable to the socio-economic effects of drought due to a large percentage of their population being employed in the agriculture industry.  

East Africa 

In Africa droughts pose a high risk and the following countries in East Africa are severely affected by drought: 

Somalia where drought is leading to near-famine conditions 

Kenya which has experienced a record six below average rainy seasons 

Ethiopia has seen six below average rainy seasons in a drought affecting 31 million people 

Over 40 million people have been impacted by the drought across East Africa. The drought affecting countries like Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia began in October 2020. Throughout these regions, insecurity, severe drought, and an exponential increase in food prices have brought millions to the brink of famine. 

“Somalia is seeing the worst of the crisis, with over 200,000 already living in the most extremes of hunger, but the challenge is regional,” says Abukar Mohamud, IRC’s Deputy Director of Programs for Somalia. “Across East Africa, people are facing the worst drought in 40 years.  

“People are not just dying due to a lack of food. Hunger means their weakened bodies cannot fight off diseases like diarrhea, measles or malaria, so death rates are high. Children are particularly at risk and often die at double the rate of adults. And those who survive will face ill health for the rest of their lives. The 2011 famine saw over 250,000 people die of hunger – half of whom were children.” 

What is the IRC doing to help in East Africa? 

East Africa is home to some of the IRC’s longest-running programs globally. Today, over 2,000 IRC staff in the region are scaling up our programs to address the current drought and rising food insecurity, including expanding to new areas to meet severe needs. 

This includes health programming, food and cash assistance, and providing clean water.  

A new approach to treating malnutrition 

Currently, 80% of malnourished children do not have access to treatment. The IRC has developed a streamlined approach for treatment so that more children can access treatment and recover. We are working to raise funds and remove blocks so that this treatment can be distributed at scale in places like East Africa.  

How can I help?

Around the world, our staff are working around the clock to ensure families can survive, recover and regain control of their futures. Donate now to support our work.

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What are the causes of drought?

A drought is a severe shortage of water in a particular location. A combination of factors causes droughts.

Meteorological causes of drought

Meteorological factors can cause an area to get less rainfall than average. Changes in global atmospheric circulation can mean it doesn’t rain much in an area. For example, the drought in Australia in the 2000s was made worse by changing air and ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean.

Changes in atmospheric circulation can also affect rainfall patterns. In the past, monsoon rains in India had failed to appear when they were due.

High-pressure systems can block low-pressure systems that bring rainfall to the UK. This can lead to drought conditions.

Hydrological causes of drought

A lack of water in stores such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs and aquifers (water stored underground naturally) can lead to drought. Areas that rely on rainfall and surface water are more likely to experience drought. Surface water quickly evaporates in warm, dry conditions leading to an increased risk of drought.

Hydrological causes of drought can take some time to have an impact. For example, water stores such as aquifers can take months or even years to replenish.

Human causes of drought

Deforestation leads to less water being stored in the soil. Therefore, the land dries out quicker than it would if it were covered in vegetation. Also, trees release moisture into the atmosphere through their leaves, a process is known as transpiration. Removing trees and vegetation reduces the amount of moisture in the atmosphere making the area drier.

Constructing dams and reservoirs reduces the flow of water downstream. This can lead to drought in other areas. There are several locations worldwide where this could lead to conflict in the future, including along the River Nile.

Intensive agriculture depletes water supplies as large quantities of water are required for irrigation . Additionally, livestock also has considerable demands on water for drinking.

Some locations are more vulnerable to drought than others

The map below shows the distribution of droughts around the world.

This map shows drought severity, measured as the product of the average length of a drought occurrence and how dry it was the drought. This visualization is based on data collected for the period between 1901 and 2008.

The areas experiencing the most severe droughts occur at around 30° north and south of the equator. This can be explained by global atmospheric circulation , as high pressure at this latitude brings very little rainfall.

Over time the locations affected by drought have varied. For example, there have been more droughts in Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean since 1950 and fewer in the Americas and Russia.

Some scientists have suggested that climate change might increase the frequency and severity of droughts in the future.

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Understanding Droughts

Drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather when there is not enough rain.

Biology, Ecology, Earth Science, Meteorology, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History, Geology

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Drought  is an extended period of unusually dry  weather  when there is not enough rain. The lack of  precipitation  can cause a variety of problems for local communities, including damage to  crops and a shortage of drinking water. These effects can lead to devastating  economic  and social disasters, such as  famine ,  forced migration  away from drought -stricken areas, and  conflict  over remaining  resources .

Because the full effects of a drought can develop slowly over time, impacts can be underestimated. However, drought can have  drastic  and long-term effects on  vegetation , animals, and people. Since 1900, more than 11 million people have died and more than 2 billion people have been affected by drought . Drought is also one of the costliest weather -related disasters. Since 2014 California has lost at least 2 billion-dollars a year, due to drought .

Defining Drought

Drought is a complicated  phenomenon , and can be hard to define. One difficulty is that drought means different things in different regions. A drought is defined depending on the average amount of precipitation that an area is accustomed to receiving.

For example, in Atlanta, Georgia, the average rainfall is about 127 centimeters (50 inches) a year. If  significantly less rain falls, there may be water shortages and a drought may be declared. However, some arid regions, such as the  deserts of the American Southwest, may receive less than about 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rainfall in a non- drought year. A drought in Atlanta could be a very wet period in Phoenix, Arizona!

Determining the start of a drought can be tricky. Unlike many  natural hazards that bring about sudden and dramatic results—such as  earthquakes ,  tornadoes , and  hurricanes —the onset of a drought can be gradual and subtle. It can take weeks, months, or even years for the full effects of long-term  inadequate  rainfall to become apparent.

The end of a drought can also be difficult to determine. While a single rain storm will provide short-term relief from a drought , it might take weeks or months before levels of precipitation return to normal. The start and end of a drought are often only clear in hindsight .

Causes of Drought

Most droughts occur when regular weather patterns are interrupted, causing  disruption to the  water cycle . Changes in  atmospheric circulation  patterns can cause storm tracks to be  stalled for months or years. This disruption can dramatically impact amounts of precipitation that a region normally receives. Changes in wind patterns can also be disruptive to how moisture is absorbed in various regions.

Scientists have found a link between certain  climate  patterns and drought . El Niño is a weather event where the surface water in the Pacific Ocean along the central South American coast rises in temperature. These warmer waters alter storm patterns and are associated with droughts in Indonesia, Australia, and northeastern South America. El Nino events keep climate scientists guessing, by occurring every two to seven years.

La Niña is the counterpart to El Niño , when the surface water in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of South America decreases in temperature. The cooler waters affect storm patterns by contributing to drier-than-normal conditions in parts of North and South America. El Niño and La Niña both usually last about a year. The effects of La Niña on weather patterns are often more  complex  than El Niño . Two of the most devastating droughts in the history of the United States—the 1930s  Dust Bowl  and the 1988 drought in the Midwest—are associated with the effects of La Niña.

There is still a lot of debate about the connection between drought and  global warming , the current period of  climate change . A 2013 NASA study predicts warmer worldwide temperatures will mean increased rainfall in some parts of the world and decreased rainfall in others, leading to both more flooding and more droughts worldwide. Other scientists question the prediction that there will be more droughts and believe global warming will create a wetter climate around the world.

Impacts of Drought

Trees and other plants have adapted to withstand the effects of drought through various survival methods. Some plants (such as grasses) will slow their growth or turn brown to conserve water. Trees can drop their leaves earlier in the season to prevent losing water through the leaf surface. However, if drought conditions persist, much vegetation will die.

Certain plants have adapted so they can withstand long periods without water. Yuccas, for instance, have deep  root systems that can seek out water with incredible efficiency. Cacti have spiny, hairy spines, spikes, or leaves that limit how much water they lose to  evaporation . Mosses can withstand complete  dehydration . Juniper trees can self- prune  by steering water only to ward the branches required for survival. Other plants only grow when there is enough water to support them. In periods of drought , their seeds can survive under the  soil for years until conditions are favorable again.

However, many organisms cannot adapt to drought conditions, and the environmental effects of extended, unusual periods of low precipitation can be  severe . Negative impacts include damage to  habitats , loss of  biodiversity , soil   erosion , and an increased risk from  wildfires . During the U.S. drought of 1988, rainfall in many states was 50 to 85 percent below normal. Summer thunderstorms produced  lightning  without rain and  ignited fires in dry trees. In Yellowstone National Park 36 percent of the park was destroyed by fire.

Drought can also create significant economic and social problems. The lack of rain can result in crop loss, a decrease in land prices, and  unemployment  due to declines in production. As water levels in rivers and lakes fall, water-supply problems can develop. These can bring about other social problems. Many of these problems are health-related, such as lack of water, poor  nutrition , and famine . Other problems include conflicts over water usage and food, and forced migration away from drought -stricken areas.

While drought is a naturally occurring part of the weather cycle and cannot be prevented, human activity can influence the effects that drought has on a region. Many modern agricultural practices may make land more  vulnerable to drought . While new  irrigation  techniques have increased the amount of land that can be used for farming, they have also increased  farmers ’ dependence on water.

Traditional agricultural techniques allow land to “rest” by rotating crops each season and alternating areas where  livestock graze . Now, with many areas in the world struggling with overpopulation and a shortage of farmland, there is often not enough  arable  land to support  sustainable practices. Over-farming and  overgrazing  can lead to soil being  compacted and unable to hold water. As the soil becomes drier, it is vulnerable to erosion . This process can lead to  fertile  land becoming desert -like, a process known as  desertification . The desertification of the  Sahel  in North Africa is partly blamed on a prolonged drought whose effects were intensified by farming practices that result in overgrazing .

Increased drought conditions in Kenya have been attributed to  deforestation and other human activities. Trees help bring precipitation into the ground and prevent soil erosion . But in 2009, it was reported that one-quarter of a protected forest reserve had been cleared for farming and  logging , leading to drought conditions affecting 10 million people around the country.

Historical Droughts

Scientists often study historical droughts to put modern-day droughts in perspective. Since our  data  from  thermometers and  rain gauges only goes back about 100 to 150 years, scientists must research  paleoclimatology , the study of the atmosphere of prehistoric Earth. Scientists gather paleoclimatic data from  tree rings ,  sediments found in lakes and oceans,  ice cores , and archaeological  features and  artifacts . This allows scientists to extend their understanding of weather patterns for millions of years in the past.

Analyzing paleoclimatic data shows that severe and extended droughts are an  inevitable  part of natural climate cycles. North America has experienced a number of long-lasting droughts with significant effects. It is thought that droughts brought about the decline of the  Ancestral Puebloans  in the Southwest during the 13th century, and the central and Lower  Mississippian societies in the 14th to 16th centuries.

In South America, massive migration out of the once-fertile Atacama Desert 9,500 years ago can be explained by the onset of extreme drought.

In Africa, the Sahel region experienced a dry period from 1400 to 1750 that radically altered the  landscape . The water level in Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana, for instance, fell so low that an entire forest grew on the lake’s edges. Today, visitors can still see the tops of trees growing out of the lake—where the water is now more than 15 meters (50 feet) deep.

What scientists have learned by looking at Earth’s drought history is that periods of severe drought are a regular part of nature’s cycle. As devastating as droughts in the last century have been, they are considered relatively minor compared to the severity of earlier droughts that have lasted more than a century.

Major Droughts in the Past Century

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is probably the most well-known drought experienced by the U.S. By 1934, 80 percent of the U.S. was struggling with moderate-to- severe drought conditions. The drought lasted nearly a decade and had devastating effects on crop production in the  Great Plains . The combination of lack of rain, high temperatures, and strong winds affected at least 50 million acres of land. Massive clouds of dust and sand formed as unusually strong winds lifted the dry soil into the air. These clouds could block out the sun for days, giving the period the name “ dust bowl .” In 1934, one dust cloud infamously traveled 2,414 kilometers (1,500 miles), from the Great Plains to the eastern U.S.

Mass migration was an indirect effect of the Dust Bowl . Farmers and their families were forced to migrate to other areas in search of work, and by 1940, 2.5 million people had fled the Great Plains . Of those, 200,000 moved to California. The influx of migrants into existing economies already strained by the Great Depression led to a rise in conflict , unemployment , and  poverty .

In the 1950s, severe drought returned to the Great Plains and southwestern United States, affecting half of the continental U.S. Low rainfall and high temperatures caused the production of crops in some areas to drop nearly 50 percent. Hay became too expensive for ranchers, and they had to feed their cattle prickly pear cactus and molasses to keep them alive. By the end of the five-year drought in 1957, 244 of Texas’ 254 counties had been declared  federal   drought disaster areas .

In the late 1980s, the U.S. experienced one of the costliest drought in its history. The three-year spell of high temperatures and low rainfall ruined roughly $15 billion of crops in the  Corn Belt . The total of all the losses in energy, water,  ecosystems , and  agriculture  is estimated at $39 billion. Federal assistance programs were able to help many farmers , but a longer-lasting drought would make it more difficult for the government to provide nationwide aid.

Droughts continue to affect the U.S. Texas has been suffering from drought since 2010, with 2011 ranking as the driest year in the state’s history. A September 2012  National Geographic  magazine article called Texas “The New Dust Bowl.” By 2013, 99 percent of the state was dealing with drought.

Australia is also a frequent victim of drought . The last decade has been especially severe , earning it the name The Big Dry or The Millennium Drought . Much of the country was placed under water restrictions, wildfires spread in the dry weather , and the water level in some  dams fell to 25 percent. In 2007, 65 percent of viable land in Australia was declared to be in a drought . The drought was officially declared over in April 2012.

Droughts that occur in the  developing world  can cause even greater devastation. The Sahel region in Africa, which includes eight countries, endured a series of droughts in the 1970s and 1980s where annual rainfall dropped by about 40 percent. In the early 1970s, more than 100,000 people died and millions of people were forced to migrate. Conditions continue to be critical in the area due to drought , overpopulation, failing crops , and high food prices. Drought emergencies for the region have been declared four times since 2000.

The  Horn of Africa , which includes the countries of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, is particularly vulnerable to droughts . Because almost 80 percent of the population is rural and depends on agriculture for food and income, famine often accompanies drought .

Struggles for the region’s limited, remaining resources can lead to conflict and war. In 1984 and 1985, the Horn of Africa suffered one of the worst droughts of the 20th century. The U.N. estimates that in Ethiopia alone, 1 million people died, 1.5 million livestock died, and 8.7 million people were affected by the drought—including being hospitalized, forced to migrate, or forced to change professions. In Sudan, 1 million people died, at least 7 million livestock died, and 7.8 million people were affected.

The cycle of drought-famine-conflict has persisted in the region, with drought conditions returning every few years since 2000. In 2006, drought affected 11 million people across the Horn of Africa, and the resulting crisis killed between 50,000 and 100,000 people and affected more than 13 million.

Forecasting and Measuring Drought

Even though scientists are unable to predict how long a drought will last or how severe it will be, early warning systems and  monitoring tools can  minimize  some of drought ’s damaging impacts. There are a number of tools used to monitor drought across the U.S. Due to the limitations of each system, data from different sources are often compiled to create a more comprehensive  forecast .

The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), developed in 1965 by the  National Weather Service , is the most commonly used drought monitor . It is a complex measurement system and an effective way to forecast long-term drought . Its limitations are that it does not provide early warnings for drought and is not as accurate for use in mountainous areas because it does not account for snow (only rain) as precipitation . The PDSI is often used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine when to begin providing drought relief.

Information from the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is often used to supplement the PDSI data . The SPI, developed in 1993, is less complex than the PDSI and only measures precipitation —not evaporation or water  runoff . Many scientists prefer using the SPI because the time period being analyzed can easily be  customized . The SPI can also identify droughts many months earlier than the PDSI. The National Drought Mitigation Center uses the SPI to monitor drought conditions around the U.S.

The U.S. Drought Monitor , started in 1999, is a joint effort between three U.S. government agencies—the Department of Agriculture , the Department of Commerce, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Monitor   synthesizes data from  academic  and federal scientists into a weekly map indicating levels of dryness around the country. It is designed to be a blend of science and art that can be used as a general summary of drought conditions around the country. It is not meant to be used as a drought predictor or for detailed information about specific areas.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) monitors satellite data of crops and rainfall across Africa and some parts of Central America, the Middle East , and Central Asia. Analysis of the data allows for early intervention to try to prevent drought -induced famine .

Preparing for Drought

People and governments need to adopt new practices and policies to prepare as much as possible for inevitable future droughts . Emergency spending once a crisis has begun is less effective than money spent in preparation. The  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  estimates that every $1 spent in planning for a natural hazard will save $4 in the long term.

Many areas are extremely vulnerable to drought as people continue to be dependent on a steady supply of water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends a series of  conservation  practices to help farmers prepare for drought . Some preventative measures include in stalling an  efficient   irrigation system that reduces the amount of water lost to evaporation , storing water in ditches along fields, regularly monitoring soil moisture, planting crops that are more drought -resistant, and rotating crops to allow water in the soil to increase.

In  urban areas , many cities are promoting water conservation by addressing water usage habits. Some enforce water restrictions, such as limiting days when lawns and plants can be watered, and offering free high-efficiency toilets and kitchen faucets.

Some drought-ravaged cities are taking even more extreme measures to prepare for future droughts. In Australia, the city of Perth is planning for a massive wastewater -recycling program that will eventually provide up to a quarter of the city’s water demands by 2060. Perth has been dealing with a decline in rainfall since the mid 1970s. The city, which is on the edge of a huge desert, is also struggling with its history of over-consumption of water. Water-hungry traditions such as planting large, lush lawns and parks will need to be addressed through conservation measures.

Drought in the USA In August 2012, drought conditions extended over 70 percent of the United States. Counties in 33 states were designated “disaster counties” by the government. In the beginning of 2013, drought still affected more than 60 percent of the country.

Dust Bowl John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath describes the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s: “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in setting back again.”

Yunnan Drought

The ongoing drought in Yunnan Province, China, has forced some families to transport water from more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

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Drought: Everything You Need to Know

Drought affects more people globally than any other natural disaster. Here’s what causes these prolonged dry spells and how we can mitigate their impact.

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Natural disasters usually announce their arrival: Hurricanes uproot trees, tornadoes roar, and wildfires wipe out entire landscapes. These large, sudden events generate destruction on impact—and then they’re gone.

Drought is different. It doesn’t make a big entrance—the start of a drought might even be mistaken for a bit of a dry spell—and its impact builds over time. But while often described as a “ creeping disaster ,” drought leaves a trail of destruction as dangerous and deadly as any other extreme weather event. In fact, drought has affected more people around the world in the past four decades than any other type of natural disaster.

Here’s a look at what drought is, what causes it, and how we can better prepare for its impact.

What is drought?

Types of drought, causes of drought, are droughts increasing, drought prevention and preparation.

Drought is characterized by a lack of precipitation —such as rain, snow, or sleet—for a protracted period of time, resulting in a water shortage. While droughts occur naturally, human activity, such as water use and management, can exacerbate dry conditions. What is considered a drought varies from region to region and is based largely on an area’s specific weather patterns. Whereas the threshold for drought may be achieved after just six rainless days on the tropical island of Bali, annual rainfall would need to fall below seven inches in the Libyan desert to warrant a similar declaration.

Developing nations are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including drought. More than 80 percent of drought-induced economic damage and loss suffered by developing nations from 2005 to 2015 was related to livestock, crops, and fisheries. The economic toll of some $29 billion tells only part of the story. Drought in developing nations is notorious for creating water and food insecurity and exacerbating preexisting problems such as famine and civil unrest. It can also contribute to mass migration, resulting in the displacement of entire populations.

A refugee camp in Kenya

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/Flickr

In the United States, drought is the second-most costly form of natural disaster (behind hurricanes), exacting an average toll of $9.6 billion in damage and loss per event, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information. Meanwhile, some level of drought often has some part of the country in its grip. During the historic dry spell of 2012 (the nation’s most extensive since the 1930s ), as much as two-thirds of the country was affected by drought at its peak. U.S. droughts can be persistent as well. From 2012 to 2016, scant rainfall and record-breaking heat in California created what is estimated to have been the state’s worst drought in 1,200 years .

These dry spells take a major toll on the economy, with the drought and extreme heat of 2012 alone resulting in an estimated $17 billion in crop loss es. As in developing nations, they can create conditions of water insecurity and higher food prices. Drought can also lead to regionally specific problems. In California, for example, a large number of native fish populations that depend on the San Francisco Bay–Delta Estuary —from the bellwether delta smelt to the iconic Chinook salmon—have suffered sharp declines due to reduced river flows during the recent historic drought.

Droughts are categorized according to how they develop and what types of impact they have.

Drought damage on the Fresno Harlen Ranch in Fresno, California

Cynthia Mendoza/USDA

Meteorological drought

Imagine a large swath of parched, cracked earth and you’re likely picturing the impact of meteorological drought, which occurs when a region’s rainfall falls far short of expectations.

Agricultural drought

When available water supplies are unable to meet the needs of crops or livestock at a particular time, agricultural drought may ensue. It may stem from meteorological drought, reduced access to water supplies, or simply poor timing—for example, when snowmelt occurs before runoff is most needed to hydrate crops.

Hydrological drought

A hydrological drought occurs when a lack of rainfall persists long enough to deplete surface water—rivers, reservoirs, or streams—and groundwater supplies.

Natural Causes

Droughts have plagued humankind throughout much of our history, and until recently they were often natural phenomena triggered by cyclical weather patterns, such as the amount of moisture and heat in the air, land, and sea.

Fluctuating ocean and land temperatures

Ocean temperatures largely dictate global weather patterns, including dry and wet conditions on land, and even tiny temperature fluctuations can have huge ripple effects on climate systems. Research shows that dramatic and prolonged temperature changes in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans correspond directly to extreme weather patterns on land, including persistent droughts in North America and the eastern Mediterranean—the latter of which has been described as the region’s worst drought in 900 years . Fluctuating ocean temperatures are also behind El Niño and La Niña weather phenomena, with La Niña notorious for drying out the southern United States . Meanwhile, hotter surface temperatures on land lead to greater evaporation of moisture from the ground, which can increase the impact of drought.

Altered weather patterns

The distribution of rainfall around the world is also impacted by how air circulates through the atmosphere. When there is an anomaly in surface temperatures—particularly over the sea—air circulation patterns are altered, changing how and where precipitation falls around the world. The new weather patterns can throw water supply and demand out of sync, as is the case when earlier-than-usual snowmelt reduces the amount of water available for crops in the summer.

Reduced soil moisture

Soil moisture can impact cloud formation, and hence precipitation. When water from wet soil evaporates, it contributes to the formation of rain clouds, which return the water back to the earth. When land is drier than usual, moisture still evaporates into the atmosphere, but not at a volume adequate to form rain clouds. The land effectively bakes, removing additional moisture and further exacerbating dry conditions.

Manmade Causes

While drought occurs naturally, human activity—from water use to greenhouse gas emissions—is having a growing impact on their likelihood and intensity.

Climate change

Climate change—and global warming , specifically—impacts drought in two basic ways: Rising temperatures generally make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier. For wetter regions, warm air absorbs more water, leading to larger rain events. But in more arid regions, warmer temperatures mean water evaporates more quickly. In addition, climate change alters large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, which can shift storm tracks off their typical paths. This, in turn, can magnify weather extremes, which is one reason why climate models predict the already parched U.S. Southwest and the Mediterranean will continue to get drier.

Excess water demand

Drought often reflects an imbalance in water supply and demand. Regional population booms and intensive agricultural water use can put a strain on water resources, even tipping the scale enough to make the threat of drought a reality. One study estimates that from 1960 to 2010, the human consumption of water increased the frequency of drought in North America by 25 percent. What’s more, once rainfall dwindles and drought conditions take hold, persistent water demand—in the form of increased pumping from groundwater, rivers, and reservoirs—can deplete valuable water resources that may take years to replenish and permanently impact future water availability. Meanwhile, demand for water supplied by upstream lakes and rivers, particularly in the form of irrigation and hydroelectric dams, can lead to the diminishing or drying out of downstream water sources, which may contribute to drought in other regions.

Drought-stricken Lake Powell, seen from space

Deforestation and soil degradation

When trees and plants release moisture into the atmosphere, clouds form and return the moisture to the ground as rain. When forests and vegetation disappear, less water is available to feed the water cycle, making entire regions more vulnerable to drought. Meanwhile, deforestation and other poor land-use practices, such as intensive farming, can diminish soil quality and reduce the land’s ability to absorb and retain water. As a result, soil dries out faster (which can induce agricultural drought), and less groundwater is replenished (which can contribute to hydrological drought). Indeed, experts believe the 1930s Dust Bowl was caused in large part by poor agricultural practices combined with the cooling of the Pacific and the warming of the Atlantic by as little as a few tenths of a degree.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did not see a global trend toward increasing dryness or drought across the world in 2013, when it released its most recent assessment. But global temperatures have unequivocally become hotter, and hotter conditions precipitate extreme weather —including severe drought. Hotter conditions also reduce snowpack, which provides a key source of water supply and natural water storage in many regions. Regionally, the driest parts of the earth are getting drier, while the wettest parts are getting wetter. That’s why some areas of the world, such as southern Europe and West Africa, have endured longer and more intense droughts since the 1950s while other regions, such as central North America, have seen droughts become less frequent or less intense. Looking forward, as temperatures continue to rise, the IPCC and other researchers anticipate an intensification of those regional trends.

Cattle farm near Walkaway, western Australia

Jackocage/Flickr

We can’t control the weather. But by limiting our climate change contributions, reducing water waste, and using water more efficiently, we can prepare for—and maybe even curb—future dry spells.

Climate change mitigation

The impact of climate change, including more severe drought, can be mitigated only when countries, cities, businesses, and individuals shift away from the use of climate-warming fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy sources . The Paris Agreement, which was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 and aims to limit the earth’s warming over the next century to 2 degrees Celsius, or 1.5 degrees if possible, lays the framework for global climate action. But the current commitments countries made under the pact so far aren’t considered enough to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. It will succeed only if countries go beyond their commitments, and that includes the United States. However, catering to big polluters instead of the will of a majority of Americans, the Trump administration had committed to withdrawing the country from the agreement, as well as from key domestic policies—from the Clean Power Plan to automotive fuel efficiency standards —that would reduce our nation’s carbon emissions. Fortunately, American states and cities , as well as more than 2,000 U.S. businesses, institutions, and universities, are taking the reins on climate action by reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency. It’s crucial that they do, as research indicates even meeting the agreement’s most ambitious targets will only reduce—not eliminate—the likelihood of extreme weather events.

There’s plenty of room for individuals—particularly Americans, who produce about four times more carbon pollution than citizens elsewhere, on average—to fight climate change as well. Actions include speaking to local and congressional leaders about regional environmental policies and finding ways to cut carbon pollution from your daily life.

Urban water conservation and efficiency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that aging infrastructure—faulty meters, crumbling pipes, leaky water mains—costs the United States an estimated 2.1 trillion gallons in lost drinkable water each year. (That’s about enough to drown Manhattan in 300 feet of water.) Meanwhile, a single leaky faucet—releasing just three drips a minute—wastes more than 100 gallons of water in a year. States, cities, water utilities, businesses, and citizens can curb water waste by investing in climate-smart strategies . These include repairing leaky infrastructure (from utility pipes to the kitchen faucet), boosting water efficiency with the use of water- and energy-efficient technologies and appliances (such as clothes washers ), and adopting landscape design that makes use of drought-tolerant plants and water-efficient irrigation techniques. In California, these strategies alone could reduce water use by as much as 60 percent . For individuals, there are many other ways to conserve water as well.

Water recycling

Recycled water —also called reclaimed water—is highly treated wastewater that can be used for myriad purposes, from landscape irrigation (such as watering public parks and golf courses) to industrial processes (such as providing cooling water for power plants and oil refineries) to replenishing groundwater supplies. Graywater—recycled water derived from sinks, shower drains, and washing machines—can be used on site (for example, in homes and businesses) for non-potable uses such as garden or lawn irrigation. Recycled water can serve as a significant water resource, reducing demand from sources such as rivers, streams, reservoirs, and underground water supplies. According to California’s Department of Water Resources, recycling has the potential to increase water supply in the state by as much as 750 billion gallons a year by 2030.

Stormwater capture

Every year in the United States, about 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater washes off paved surfaces and rooftops, through sewer systems, and into waterways. Not only does this create pollution problems (as contaminants from land get flushed into rivers, lakes, and oceans), but it reduces the amount of rainwater that soaks back into the earth to replenish groundwater supplies. The use of green infrastructure —including green roofs, tree plantings, rain gardens, rain barrels, cisterns, and permeable pavement—can increase water supplies substantially. Stormwater capture in urban Southern California and the San Francisco Bay region alone could potentially increase annual water supplies by as much as 205 billion gallons .

Farms affected by drought near Strasburg, Colorado

Lance Cheung/USDA

Agricultural water conservation and efficiency

Agriculture is the largest consumer of the earth’s available freshwater, accounting for 70 percent of withdrawals globally, according to the World Bank. Strategies for better water management in the agricultural sector focus on increased water efficiency and reduced consumption. These include improved irrigation techniques—such as switching from flood to drip irrigation, which alone can cut water use by about 20 percent—as well as more precise irrigation scheduling to adjust the amount of water used at different stages of crop growth. Meanwhile, crop rotation, no-till farming (a method for growing crops with minimal soil disturbance), and the use of cover crops help build soil health, which in turn enables the land to absorb and retain more water. Indeed, the use of cover crops alone on just half the land used to grow corn and soybeans in 10 of America’s highest-producing agricultural states would help the soil retain as much as a trillion gallons of water each year.

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Essay on Drought

Students are often asked to write an essay on Drought in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Drought

Understanding drought.

Drought is a natural event that happens when an area gets less rain than normal. It can last for months or even years.

Causes of Drought

Droughts often occur due to lack of rain. Sometimes, high temperatures can also cause drought by making water evaporate from soil and plants.

Effects of Drought

Drought can make it hard for plants and animals to survive. It can also lead to water shortages for people. In severe cases, drought can cause famine.

Dealing with Drought

People can deal with drought by conserving water, using it wisely, and planning for dry periods.

Also check:

• Paragraph on Drought

250 Words Essay on Drought

Introduction.

Drought is a natural disaster characterized by a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water. It is a complex phenomenon that can have serious ecological, social, and economic impacts.

Droughts are primarily caused by irregularities in global weather patterns. Climate change has been identified as a significant factor, with increasing global temperatures leading to changes in rainfall patterns and increased evaporation rates. Human activities, such as deforestation and overuse of water resources, can also exacerbate drought conditions.

Impacts of Drought

Drought can have severe consequences for both the environment and human societies. It can lead to crop failure, livestock death, and water shortages, impacting food production and access to clean water. This can consequently lead to malnutrition, disease, and death, particularly in vulnerable populations. Economically, droughts can result in increased prices and job losses in agricultural sectors.

Drought Mitigation

Mitigation strategies for drought include water conservation, efficient irrigation techniques, and the development of drought-resistant crops. Additionally, improving climate forecasting can help societies prepare for and manage drought conditions. Policymakers must also prioritize sustainable water management to ensure that water resources are used efficiently and equitably.

Drought is a pressing global issue that requires concerted efforts to mitigate its impacts. By understanding its causes and consequences, we can develop effective strategies to manage drought and reduce its harmful effects on society and the environment.

500 Words Essay on Drought

Drought, a natural disaster characterized by a prolonged period of insufficient rainfall, is a global phenomenon with profound impacts on both human and ecological systems. It is a complex, multi-dimensional issue that involves various aspects of climate, hydrology, and human activities.

Droughts occur when there is an extended period of below-average precipitation. This deficiency of water supply can last for months or even years. Droughts are categorized into three types: meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological. Meteorological droughts are associated with reduced rainfall, agricultural droughts with soil moisture deficits affecting crop production, and hydrological droughts with reduced water availability in streams, reservoirs, and aquifers.

The primary cause of drought is a lack of precipitation over an extended period. This can be due to natural climate variability, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or changes in atmospheric conditions that suppress the formation of clouds and rainfall. Human activities, such as deforestation and overuse of water resources, can also contribute to the occurrence and severity of droughts.

The impacts of drought are far-reaching and can be devastating. They affect the environment, economy, and society. Environmental impacts include reduced water quality, loss of wildlife habitat, and increased risk of wildfires. Economically, drought can lead to crop failure, livestock death, and increased food prices, affecting food security. Social impacts include displacement of people, health issues due to lack of clean water, and increased conflicts over scarce water resources.

Drought Management and Mitigation

Effective drought management requires a proactive approach, focusing on reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience. Strategies can include improving water infrastructure, implementing water conservation practices, and developing drought-tolerant crops. At the policy level, it involves developing comprehensive drought management plans, early warning systems, and drought risk insurance. Climate change adaptation strategies also play a crucial role in drought mitigation.

Drought is a significant global challenge that requires concerted efforts to mitigate and adapt. While it is a natural phenomenon, human activities have exacerbated its occurrence and impacts. Therefore, understanding drought, its causes, impacts, and management strategies is essential for sustainable development and resilience. As we move forward, it is crucial that we continue to enhance our knowledge and strategies to better manage and mitigate the effects of droughts.

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Droughts 101

Droughts can cause a variety of problems to local communities, including damage to ecosystems, crops, and a shortage of drinking water.

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Drought Essay

500 words essay on drought.

Droughts refer to conditions when particular regions face scarcity of water because of low or no rainfall. It is one of the most prevalent problems in India. A lot of areas in the country get hit by drought every year while others face it occasionally. Moreover, many factors contribute to the problem of drought which includes deforestation, global warming and more. Drought essay will take us through it in detail.

Drought Prone Areas in India

In India, there are a lot of chronic drought-affected regions. They include the West Rajasthan and the Kutchtch regions of Gujarat. The main factor for this is the geographical location of these areas.

Moreover, the monsoon season in this area is also very weak by the time they reach there. In addition, humans degrading the environment also do not help but add to the brutality of this problem.

Other than that, other drought-prone areas are Western Orissa, Rayalsema and Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, interior Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and more. However, the two states which suffer the most from both floods and drought are Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

As per an estimate, around 70% of cultivable land in India is Drought prone. If we look at the past three years, some areas in Rajasthan have been experiencing very little rains. Thus, it becomes harder for the people in that area.

The most impacted section of the society is the marginal farmers, landless labourers and persons from the economically backward section. In addition, the tribal depending on forest produce also suffer from droughts.

Prevention of Droughts

With droughts, the case is different from tsunamis and cyclones. Meaning to say, we can predict it much in advance. Thus, it gives ample time for the Government authorities to prepare for it in advance and cope with this problem.

The Meteorological Department can easily predict the quantity and duration of rainfall with a fair degree of accuracy. As a result, we can counter the intensity and impact of droughts by a series of preventive as well as curative measures.

First of all, we must promote small scale and cottage industry in order to reduce the dependence on agriculture in drought-prone areas. Further, executing a rainwater harvesting project with community cooperation can help in many areas.

Most importantly, we must increase the forest cover by plantation. Similarly, we can also research arid cultivation technologies to implement them in drought-prone areas.

It is also essential to formulate drought management strategies with the involvement of the communities. Finally, we must also introduce crop insurance schemes so that the farmers do not suffer a great loss.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Drought Essay

To sum it up, drought is a difficult situation with which we have to deal with. When the severity is high, it becomes all the more difficult to manage it. A lot of people get affected because of droughts every year as it reduces human activities. Thus, it is essential to take effective measures to deal with it.

FAQ of Drought Essay

Question 1: What are the effects of drought?

Answer 1: Drought affects the environment in a lot of different ways. We all know that plants and animals depend on water, just like humans. When a drought happens, their food supply shrinks and their habitat can be damaged. As a result, an increase in disease in wild animals happens because of reduced food and water supplies.

Question 2: Why do droughts happen?

Answer 2: Droughts happen when there is not enough rain for a long period of time. It is not like a dry spell, there is so little precipitation (rain, snow, sleet ) that a whole province starts to dry out. Sometimes, a drought can take decades to fully develop.

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Essay on Drought for Students and Children | PDF Download

Essay on Drought for Students and Children – Types, Causes, Prevention Steps: Drought is one of both human and natural made disasters. The main cause to occur drought is the human activities around the area’s environmental conditions. The more damage to the environment the more is the chance of rising to droughts. All the living beings will suffer heavily and even to death due to droughts as similarly, the major part is by human beings. Droughts are a disaster that human beings can’t fight against and only nature has the power to abolish it. Droughts have the power to decide whether there is a need for the existence of living beings are not. Similarly, the essay on drought will contain its types, causes, prevention steps to remove, and much more information.

Short Essay on Drought

Drought is one of the dangerous environmental conditions which damages the quality of life on Earth. It exposes the harmful effect and even it is considered a natural disaster. Drought will usually occur when there is a shortage of any of the essential natural resources in a particular area. These droughts are majorly affecting mankind and all other living beings on the earth. Some countries face drought conditions heavily, due to improper environmental balances. Drought will usually arise with the damage of the nature around the area which leads to hotter climatic conditions and fewer rainfalls. The drought was further divided into three types depending on the shortage of essential natural resources. It damages agricultural cultivation and heavy damage to the lives of farmers. Drought brings up the scarcity of water, food, moisture in the air, and high temperature. Initially, it removes the moisture level from the surroundings, and later on, it eliminates the resources.

Causes to occur droughts are deforestation and a rise in temperatures. As trees are removed it leads to an increase in temperature and ecological imbalances in the areas. As the environment was imbalanced it rises to decrease the rainfalls and hot climatic conditions. Global Warming has the part to bring Drought to the environment. On the other side impact of the drought will be high on living beings on earth. It can abolish food, water and tends to hard financial condition to the people and the country. However, there are some prevention steps like reforestation, using solar energy, and many more to reduce the hot climates and to improve the climate conditions. These steps bring up the rains and necessary moisture conditions for the sustainment of humans and living beings.

Long Essay on Droughts

Drought is a dangerous condition in nature where the scarcity of essential natural resources arises. These conditions are harmful to live beings and mankind where they can lead to death. Drought is nothing but the scarcity of water, food, which are due to climatic conditions. As the lesser rainfalls are seen in the areas which cause the droughts and chance to end of living beings. An example of a drought is the deserts where scarcity arises due to high temperature and less moisture climatic conditions. With increasing global pollution and global warming levels, drought will arise easily.

Types of Droughts

Droughts are further divided into four types namely Meteorological, Hydrological, Agricultural, and Socioeconomic. These all are happening due to the dry weather conditions that dominate in particular areas. As the drought arises it brings up the economical and environmental imbalances in the country or a particular area. There are some areas where the lesser rainfall and humid climatic conditions, there is a chance of observing droughts at a higher rate. People of these specific areas will face problems in their daily routine. Scarcity of essential resources is always present in the area and conditions of people are hard and move to a far distance to get resources.

Metrological drought is the scarcity of cool weather or the continuous dry weather located in a particular area. Hydrological drought happens in areas with less water supply and a decrease in the level of water bodies in the areas. Hydrological droughts occurred after the period of the metrological droughts are observed in the unique area. Agricultural Droughts happen when the crops are affected for any reason. Whereas Socioeconomic drought is observed when the demand and supply ratio of goods is unbalanced.

Causes of Droughts

The causes of droughts are many due to man-made activities and very limited natural activities. But the cause of damage for the droughts are due to humans at a higher rate and these are done every day. Whereas natural disaster occurs once and expose heavy damage. Natural activities like rising in temperature, orbital rotation of the earth, moisture levels in the atmosphere, and many others. Human activities like deforestation, global warming activities, etc. There are some other causes like air circulation, water availability, and some ecological imbalances.

The impact of the drought will be at a higher rate where the life span of human beings will decrease. drought will cut all the chains that are present in the ecosystem. All the living beings and nature will be impacted to a further extent which can remove everything on Planet Earth. However, some solution steps need to follow by human beings to the remove roots of droughts. Reforestation and planting of trees bring up the climatic changes in the environment and make fall the rains. These will develop greenness and remove all the pollution even. Every prevention step needs to follow for the removal of drought from the ecosystem.

Droughts are occurring due to various activities that are involved by human beings. Humans have the intelligence to change the environment in a good path and parallel fulfill their needs of them. Every individual in the ecosystem should feel responsible to follow the prevention steps for the improvement of nature for further decades. Everything is in the hands of human beings because there was the chance to reconstruct the issues less environment and healthy ecosystem.

Conclusion: We believe that the above essay on droughts contains all the information and more useful points to get awareness. These essays will helpful for UPSC aspirants and at competitions & exams for students.

Dear Students and Children, you can download the Drought Essay in the Hand Written Format by Clicking the Below Click Here Link.

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Essay on Drought

List of essays on drought, essay on drought – short essay for kids and children (essay 1 – 100 words), essay on drought – 10 lines on drought written in english (essay 2 – 250 words), essay on drought – causes, effects and measures (essay 3 – 350 words), essay on drought (essay 4 – 400 words), essay on drought  – in india (essay 5 – 500 words), essay on drought – for school students (class 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 standard) (essay 6 – 600 words), essay on drought – for college and university students (essay 7 – 750 words), essay on drought – long essay on drought (essay 8 – 1000 words).

Drought is a disaster which affects many regions of India every year. A natural disaster which leads to a shortage of water for drinking, agriculture and other practices is called a drought. However, we are yet to come up with some concrete measure in order to avoid this adverse situation through which the people have to go through each year.

Audience: The below given essays are exclusively written for school students (Class 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Standard) and college students.

Drought is a severe condition in which some regions face a heavy shortage of water. There are some countries which are nowadays struggling with an insufficient amount of water. This situation occurs due to factors like climate change, deforestation or global warming.

In some areas, starvation as a result of drought, leads to the death of several people. Drought also affect the production of crops, causes forest fires and leads to insufficient electricity production.

It is important to adopt some solutions to tackle this issue. We can use methods like rainwater harvesting, seawater desalination or grow more plants and trees. The whole world is familiar with the misuse of water resources which needs to be overcome in order to prevent droughts.

The prolonged absence of rain or the lack of natural sources of water can bring about a drought. This natural phenomenon has been occurring all through the history of mankind and it has shaped many civilizations in the past. Droughts are something that people fear and it is also something that can be brought about by our actions towards our surrounding. One is compelled by practical reason to consider what actions can bring about potentially cataclysmic events like droughts and since I am still a student there is a lot I can do, further on as I go through life, to contribute to reasonable water usage.

The earth has its own principle of functioning and it changes our surrounding often and without warning, that’s why droughts sometimes happen even though we do nothing, in particular, to make them come about. When such events occur, people use different techniques to find alternative sources of water. The best we can do in such situations is to find tools that we can use to help us predict what the movement of water will be, or how much rain will fall.

On the other hand, we tend to misuse our natural resources and to drain them. That is why the recent decades have seen many rivers dry out due to our extensive agricultural needs. The lack of water brought about droughts in many regions that were previously famed for their natural wealth. Thankfully, people are becoming aware of how they are behaving and through this awareness, we are developing new methods for water use and distribution, it is up to us to implement those changes and make fear of the great drought a thing of the past.

“Drought” which results from the shortage of water due to lack of rainfall. The situation is challenging and can prove to be catastrophic for those living in the drought-affected areas.

Causes of Drought:

The Marathwada region of Maharashtra suffers from “drought” condition every year. There are various factors responsible for causing a “drought” like situation.

Some of these are discussed below:

1. Deforestation:

The main cause of “drought” is deforestation, which leads to a shortage of rainfall. Trees and shrubs hold the ground water, prevent it from evaporation and attracts rainfall. Deforestation is carried out to clear the land for farming, industrialization and urbanization. The soil in these areas loses its capacity to hold water, which also leads to “drought” condition. The devastating flood in the beautiful state of Kerala has become one of the biggest catastrophe in recent times.

2. Diminishing Water Bodies:

The usage of water bodies like rivers and lakes is done on a huge scale. During scorching summers these rivers and lakes are dried which result in dreadful “droughts”. Due to extreme climatic condition and various human activities, the water in these water bodies dries down which leads to “drought”. Wells are also a main sources of water in various regions in the country. Villages and towns in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat are facing life threatening situation where water in the wells has dried up. People in these villages stand in long queues to purchase water for drinking and daily needs.

Effects of Drought:

The farming sector in India is the most vulnerable to the climatic condition. Most of the agriculture in India is dependent on rainfall and ground water. “Drought” like situation has tremendously affected the farming sector and animal husbandry in India. The scorching sun sucks the ground water and becomes fatal to the cattle.

Measures to Prevent Drought:

Droughts can be prevented by –

i. Planting more trees.

ii. Implementing water conservation techniques.

iii. Reducing wastage of water and water pollution.

Conclusion:

Although initiatives like the “Paani Foundation” are being taken to mitigate “drought” condition in India but not much is done till date. As a responsible citizen we must contribute to the efforts taken to combat “drought” condition so that our future generations will not face such crisis.

The problem of drought is very severe and there are plenty of different provinces in India which are being largely impacted. It is really important for people at large to understand that the time calls for taking some strict measures at the earliest.

We have exploited mother earth in a ruthless manner and owing to the anthropogenic exploitation; the natural balance of the ecosystem has been disturbed. This in turn has led to plenty of troubles which include drought.

Drought – Getting Familiar:

Drought mainly refers to the condition wherein the area receives almost negligible to nil rainfall making it a dry period. This can be really deadly for the farmers as most of the harvest won’t ripen and it has several adverse consequences. Granted there are artificial methods of irrigation and the option of water supply but not all farmers have access to these facilities. This infers that drought ends up wrecking havoc on their finances and the families of the farmers sometimes even end up committing suicide or dying because of starvation.

Remedial Measures:

This brings us to the question as to what can be done to remedy the situation of drought. The answerer lies in helping the environment. The environment has the power to heal itself, but we need to be supportive in our approach. It is extremely important to understand the grave concerns and the bleak future that awaits us.

Drought isn’t the only calamity which we are facing. The increased frequency of earthquakes, flash floods, depleting ice cover, striking change in climates are all symbolic of the piteous condition of our environment. Until and unless, we manage to educate the masses and enlighten them about the need to have a green cover and preserve the environment, the frequency of drought and other calamities will continue to be on the rise. More and more measures need to be taken and the ruthless exploitation of the environment needs to stop right away.

We know that it is easier said than done but the change needs to start from somewhere. You should make it a point to understand the possible areas wherein you can bring a change. Try by curtailing the cutting down of trees even if it is for development purpose. Use measures to combat pollution and stop the use of non bio-degradable products. It is the collective efforts which will end up making a huge difference.

Drought is a natural calamity which is an impending sign of the dark future which this planet might be enveloped in if we do not take the right action now!

What is a drought? As per the given definitions, it is a natural disaster resulting in scarcity of water for drinking, agriculture and industrial purposes. But, given the current scenario, is it actually a natural disaster. This may not be completely true as human activities over a period of time have resulted in altering of nature’s natural phenomenon and today we see droughts occurring at places which were once abundant with water resources. Hence there is a strong need to understand the causes of drought and what can be done to prevent or minimize it.

Drought Prone Regions in India:

Some states of India have been declared as drought-prone due to the frequent occurrence of drought year after year in these states. These states are Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Northern Karnataka. Apart from these many regions, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and parts of other states are also affected by drought every year.

India is a land which is dependent on monsoon rainfall for adequacy of water. Hence inadequate rainfall is considered as the major reason for drought in most parts of the country. However, this is again a subject of debate as to why there has been insufficient rainfall for quite some years now. Another reason is the drip in the water table and consequently less water vapour in the atmosphere which is responsible for the formation of clouds.

Again global warming has led to changes in the normal climatic conditions and with the increase in temperatures; there has been a significant effect on the monsoon season in India as well. Moreover, high sea temperatures have led to the El Nino effect taking place which has further affected the onset of monsoon season. All these factors combined with improper agricultural practices and increase in pollution levels have contributed to the reduction in the monsoon rainfall which has led to drought each year in many areas in India.

What should be done?

There is an urgent need to have measures in place in order to save the regions of India from drought. One of the major plans of the Government in this regard is the linking of rivers. If we are able to link the rivers we can divert excess rivers from region to the drought-affected areas and save them from this disaster. Another important measure is to have proper irrigation methods in place so as to utilize water only as much as it is required. Moreover, extracting of water through tube wells and other sources should be checked into as this leads to drip in the water table which triggers the onset of drought.

Last, but not least, it is not the responsibility of the government alone to have measures in place to prevent regions from being affected by drought, we all should ensure that we save water to the maximum and follow the rules as laid down by the Government. We should do rainwater harvesting as well so that we store the water provided to us by nature which shall be helpful in difficult times. A collective effort by all can surely be helpful in minimizing if not preventing the situation as adverse as drought.

Introduction:

Drought is a miserable condition caused due to lack of water in a particular region or country or territory for a long period of time. Drought is a natural calamity in which there is scarcity of water everywhere even for the basic needs. People in many countries suffer due to drought and many lose their lives since lack of water leads to lack of food. The impact of drought is very horrible and sometimes it becomes difficult for the affected country to recover to a normal state.

The main reason for drought to occur is the absence of rain. When the normally falling rain fails for a few months then there arises water scarcity. Wells become dry and people and other living beings start to move from one place to another in search of water.

Although lack of rainfall is the main cause for drought , there are also other causes that lead to such a condition.

The various causes of drought are:

Now-a-days people are mis-treating the environment. Why there is no rain? What causes rain? Everyone should ask these questions to themselves to know the real cause of drought. Trees are the main source of rainfall. When we cut trees for constructing buildings, we are not only removing the vegetation and greenery but also removing the main source of rainfall from the Earth.

2. Draining of Surface Water:

Rivers, lakes, ponds are the natural ways by which water is stored in the Earth. Activities like excessive irrigation, excessive use of water for industrial purposes drains the surface water from these natural reservoirs and cause a condition known as drought. Rise in temperature due to global warming is also a cause for draining of water.

Impacts of Drought:

The impact caused by drought is so huge that many countries that faces drought year on year still remains as under-developed countries. The day-to-day activities of the people get stopped. The severity of drought can even take many lives. Let us look into some of the major impacts:

1. Heavy Loss to Farmers:

Agriculture is the source of living for the farmers. Periodic rainfall and the availability of ground water is very much important for agriculture. Drought impacts farmers the most because if there is no rainfall, agriculture fails. There is no yield, plants die, livestock suffers and farmers end up with no income. They get debts to try other ways and make their living but when everything goes out of control, they have no other way than to end their lives. Severe droughts lead to increase in the number of farmer suicides.

2. Loss of Wildlife:

It is during the time of drought, forest fires start occurring. Since everything is dry, fire catches up very easily. The life of wild animals is at huge risk; some get burnt in the forest fires and some lose their habitat and have to move to some other place.

3. Soil Degradation:

Continuous drought will make the soil lose its moisture and fertility. We can see at many places where there are no rains, the lands will have cracks on them. Some areas regain their fertile soil after many years of rain but some totally lose their nature to yield crops.

4. Safety is at Risk:

The scarcity of food leads to increase in prices of commodities. As the droughts might have taken the employment of some, no income would push people to commit crimes such as theft.

There are some ways that people can try to manage drought. Few important ones are listed below: –

People can use rain water harvesting method to save and store rain water and use it at emergency times like drought.

Waste water must be collected, purified and re-used. The water thus stored can be used for watering plants and can be used for irrigation also.

Afforestation techniques can be adopted.

Drought has huge consequences but it is not the end. If everyone of us contribute their share in preserving the environment, then many hazards like drought can be managed very easily.

Drought is a natural disaster that occurs in some regions of the globe. Some regions are more prone to drought while other regions are not. In India, drought has been experienced and a lot of people have died. Drought causes death of humans, animals and plants due to the adverse conditions that are harsh to the ecosystem and limits survival. In disaster management, drought is considered among the threats to human and animal life. Drought is defined as a prolonged period of inadequate water and food. The periods of drought vary but lack of water for over two weeks is considered drought.

During drought, the ecosystem is negatively affected that is why agriculture is compromised and it results in lack of food. The effects of drought are both to the animate and inanimate objects in the environment. Drought is handled by disaster management teams by provision of water and food to the affected people and prevention of further effects like fires on dry vegetation. Drought can occur naturally due to dry seasons or can result from human activities that causes a change in climate.

Lack of rainfall for long periods of time results in drought. Rain formation or precipitation processes require moisture accumulation in the atmosphere or on the ground as ice. Sunshine and winds can affect the precipitation processes as it affects the formation of water.

Another cue of drought is the natural dry seasons whereby low humidity is experienced. During the dry season, water sources dry up due to high temperatures that increase vaporization. In the high demand for vapor, extreme measures like drawing water from plants is reached which results in death of those plants.

Human activities could also result in drought. Agriculture and human settlements result in deforestation. Deforestations predispose the environment to erosion of soil and vegetation destruction. The lack of vegetation and forests causes decreased rainfall in the region and could cause drought occurrence.

Climatic changes also result in drought. Human activities like emission of greenhouse gases to the environment has caused global warming. In global warming, climate change is experienced such that the temperatures on the surface of the earth are raised. Raised temperatures result in increased vaporization and depletion of water from rivers, boreholes. Effects of global warming have been determined to be either extremes of rainfall or drought.

Consequences of Drought:

Drought causes adverse effect on the ecosystem. Interruption and loss of biodiversity is experienced during drought because animals of several species die due to lack of water and food. Also, the living things like trees and vegetation die. Diseases also arise during seasons of drought that affect living things and cause death. Extinction of rare species is common during seasons of drought.

The losses experienced in the economy during drought are substantial. Drought causes death and deterioration of plants thus decreasing the agricultural economical activities. There will be inflation of food production costs and diminished water economic activities like tourism and energy production.

Health of both animals and plants is greatly affected by drought. Drought effects cause diseases like dehydration and malnutrition that are debilitating to both humans and plants. Extreme hunger for humans and animals cause death.

Drought Management:

Once drought has occurred, the protection of people and animals should be done. In disaster management, the focus is on mitigating the consequences and providing life sustenance to those affected by the disaster. In agriculture, methods of irrigation and crop rotation have been implemented in arid areas so as to mitigate the consequences of drought. Water harvesting is also essential in preparation for drought. In water harvesting, construction of dams and boreholes in arid areas has been helpful during seasons of drought.

Erosion is minimized through crop rotation. Water conservation methods like recycling and outdoor use restrictions have been employed in arid areas.

In conclusion, drought is a natural disaster whose effects are adverse and cause loss of life. The management of drought generally involves the water conservation, storage and expansion of sources of water. The consequences of drought are deleterious and destruct the ecosystem and loss of biodiversity.

In order to reduce the consequences of drought, several measures have been put in place. Disaster management teams have conducted projects for water conservation for use during drought like by constructing dams. Mitigating the consequences of drought also involved the inhibition of causes of drought. Mitigation of erosion through planting enough vegetation to prevent erosion goes a long way in preventing drought. Human activities should also be controlled.

Drought can simply be defined as a form of natural disaster that is a result of the precipitation in a particular region below average which results in prolonged periods of water supply shortage, be it ground water, surface water or rainfall water. Droughts can go on for a lot of months or even years; it is most times declared and claimed after about just 15 days.

The agriculture and ecosystem of a particular region can be substantially impacted by drought and this can lead to a great deal of harm on the economy of the region. It has been discovered that the probability of a drought taking place and bush fires occurring is increased significantly by the dry seasons annually. Drought conditions are significantly worsened by long heat periods and this is as a result of the hastened evaporation of vapours of water.

There are a lot of species of plants like the Cactaceae family that have adaptations for the tolerance of drought (like a reduce area of leaf and cuticles that are waxy to help improve their drought tolerance ability). There are other species of plants that survive periods of droughts as seeds that are buried.

Grasslands and Deserts are examples of arid biomes that are produced by droughts that are semi-permanent. Humanitarian crisis and mass migrations are caused by prolonged droughts. Majority of ecosystems that are arid have very low productivity. The world experienced its longest period of drought in Atacama Desert of Chile and the drought lasted for about 400 years.

There are a lot of causes of drought.

A few out of the many causes will be discussed below:

1. Climate Changes:

Droughts are triggered by all the various activities that result in climate change globally and this can have a very strong effect on agriculture all over the world most especially in countries that are developing. Global warming and climate change will bring about an imbalance in the ecosystem.

There is going to be erosion and flooding in some regions and drought in other regions. Therefore, it is quite obvious that climate change and global are one of the leading causes of drought in the world today.

2. Deficiency in Precipitation:

Precipitation is produced through mechanisms including orographic rainfall, strati-form rainfall and convective rainfall. The processes of convective rainfall involve vertical motions that are strong and can lead to the atmosphere overturning in that particular location in about an hour, causing heavy precipitation. The processes of stratiform precipitation involve upward motions that are weaker, a little bit less intense and can last a duration that is longer.

We can divide precipitation into about three categories; this is based on if it falls in form of liquid water, water in liquid form that freezes when it comes in contact with a surface and ice. Droughts mainly occur in areas that the normal rainfall levels are quite low. If the factors in the region do not help the volume of precipitation in a way that they can get to the surface in time, drought occurs. Drought can also be triggered through a very high reflected sunlight level.

3. Dry Season:

In the tropic regions, we have distinct dry and wet seasons and this is as a result of the Monsoon trough. The occurrence of drought is greatly increased during dry seasons, this season is known by the very low humidity and rivers and watering holes drying up. As a result of the inadequacy of watering holes and rivers, a lot of animals that graze migrate because of the absence of water and move to areas that are more fertile. Some of the animals that do this include wildebeest, elephants, zebra and cattle.

As a result of the absence of water, bushfires are very common during this season. Because of the increased temperature, the water vapour tend to become more energetic, to increase the relative humidity to 100%, required water vapour is more. When it is warm, the rate of vegetable and fruit production is increased and this causes an increase in transpiration and evaporation from plants leading to drought conditions that are worse.

Types of Drought :

With the persistence of drought, all of the various conditions that surround it worsen gradually and the effect on the region increases gradually.

There are three major types of droughts:

i. Meteorological drought is a type of drought that occurs anytime we have a prolonged period of below average rainfall or precipitation. It is common for meteorological drought to precede other types of drought.

ii. Agricultural drought is a type of drought that affects the ecology and production of crops in a particular region. Agricultural drought can also happen independently as a result of a change in the levels of precipitation when erosion and soil conditions that are triggered by agricultural endeavours that are poorly planned lead to a drop in the amount of water that is available for crop use. However, traditional droughts are caused by a period of precipitation that is below average.

iii. Hydrological drought is a type of drought that occurs when the available water reserves in sources like reservoirs, lakes and aquifers drop below average. Hydrological drought takes a lot of time to manifest since it deals with water that has been stored and is used and not replenished.

The effects of water shortages can be grouped into three namely:

i. Social effects

ii. Economic effects

iii. Environmental effects

Droughts can also cause wars, wildfires, social unrest, and drop in electricity production, mass migration, hunger, famine and so many more.

Prevention Measures:

Prevention measures include:

i. Building of Dams

ii. Cloud seeding

iii. Desalination

iv. Proper Drought monitoring

v. Proper Land use

vi. Rainwater harvesting

vii. Restriction of water use outdoors

viii. Use of Recycled water

Drought can be very detrimental to the ecosystem and can also have a lot of effects. It is therefore extremely necessary that we do our possible best to battle drought and try to employ methods of drought relief, mitigation methods to prevent drought.

Disaster , Drought , Natural Disasters

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Drought Essay in English for Students

August 12, 2021 by Sandeep

Essay on Drought: It is a closely associated natural disaster caused due to scanty or no rainfall. They are life-risking and take a heavy toll on poultry, human, and wildlife. An extreme water shortage causes crops to dry, and farmers run helter-skelter for their livelihood. Soil loses its retention capacity, and huge plots of fertile land turn into barren fields where nothing can be cultivated. Global warming and greenhouse gases mainly cause the drought situation to occur.

Essay on Drought

Below we have provided Drought Essay in English, suitable for classes 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10. This detailed essay on drought of 200-250 words is greatly helpful for all school students to perform well in essay writing competitions.

Drought is a natural calamity where there is a water shortage everywhere, even for essential needs. People in many countries are suffering from drought, and others are losing their lives because of the lack of water that contributes to food shortages. The effect of drought is terrible, and the affected country often has trouble returning to a healthy state. In some areas, starvation, as a result of drought, leads to several people’s death. Drought also affects crops’ production, causes forest fires, and leads to insufficient electricity production.

Causes of Drought

The principal explanation for drought is the lack of rain. If the usually falling rain fails for a couple of months, then water shortage occurs. Wells get dry, and people and other living beings begin travelling in search of water from one location to another. Though the leading cause of drought is lack of rainfall, other factors also contribute to such a situation.

Trees are the principal source of rainfall. When we cut the trees to build houses, we kill vegetation and greenery and eliminate the Earth’s primary source of rain. The rivers, lakes, and ponds are the natural ways water is collected on Earth. Activities such as excessive irrigation and improper water use for agricultural purposes remove the surface water from these natural reservoirs and create a drought condition.

India is a land that is dependent on monsoon rainfall for water adequacy. Consequently, insufficient rain in most parts of the world is considered the primary cause of the drought. High sea temperatures have resulted in the El Nino impact that has further influenced the monsoon season’s onset. Together with unsuitable agricultural practices and increased pollution levels, all these factors have contributed to a decline in monsoon rainfall that has led to a drought.

Consequences of Drought

Biodiversity disruption and depletion occur during a drought when many species die from lack of water and food. Drought severely affects the health of both animals and plants. Drought effects cause dehydration and malnutrition, which weaken humans and plants alike. Extreme malnutrition of humans and animals leads to their death.

The economic losses suffered during drought are also significant. Drought causes plants to die and deteriorate, reducing economic, agricultural production. Food production costs will increase, and water economic activities such as tourism and energy production will be reduced. India’s agriculture sector is the most vulnerable to climate conditions. Much of India’s agriculture relies on both rainfall and groundwater.

“Drought” like situation has tremendously affected India’s farming sector and animal husbandry. The scorching sun sucks the groundwater and becomes fatal to the cattle. Continuous drought can cause the soil to lose its humidity and fertility. There is no rain in many areas, so we can see that the lands would have cracks on them. After several years of rain, some areas recover their fertile soil, but some entirely lose their ability to produce crops.

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Free Causes and Effects of Worldwide Drought Essay Sample

Climatic changes have been recorded and are forecasted to continue increasing the frequency in occurrence of floods and drought in the world. These changes haves had significant effects on the global agricultural sector and other sectors of the global economy. Worldwide drought strikes in many places in several occurrences and the effects of these phenomena are very significant. This paper is a critical analysis of the issue, worldwide drought, its causes and impact on human, plant and animals. Drought is one of the world’s major natural hazards. On the causes of global drought, the paper will focus on the human or artificial and natural triggers of the phenomenon. The different impacts of drought will also be discussed in this document. Some of the consequences of the events in the paper will be the social, economic and environmental impacts of drought. The paper will also include a discussion on the pros of the topic in relation to solving world environmental and health problems caused by drought. The paper will provide some recommendations as proposed by experts and world organizations on how to combat the issue and come up with sustainable solutions.

Introduction

Drought, defined as the deficit of water in the atmosphere, a phenomenon that is experienced as a result of many factors. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the global climatic conditions have changed, and the effects have been felt and will continue affecting the world's population unless people come up with strategies to prevent and stop further environmental destruction. One of the major challenges will be encountered by many nations in the world in the future decades are the means to increase agricultural production with the decreasing water capacity. The increasing human and animal population continues to increase the scramble for water.

Unfortunately, the global fresh water capacity cannot satisfy the needs of every living organism that requires the resource. It is estimated that only 2.5% (35 million km³) of 1400 million km³ is fresh water that is accessible, while the rest is salty, ice and glacier that is inaccessible. The annual global precipitation is approximately 119000 km³, whereby more than half of the rainwater is naturally returned to the atmosphere through evaporation. 45000- km³ exists as surface run and is reserved in the lakes, part of the water infiltrates into the ground aquifers leaving only a small percentage as accessible and usable.

Worldwide drought is among the deadliest natural disasters that have claimed most lives over the past decades. Since the year 1994, the disaster has claimed more than two hundred thousand lives. In defining drought, it is crucial to understand the difference between drought and dryness. The condition is classified as moderate, severe or extreme according to the prevalence and impacts on the environment. The hazard is the server in hot climatic conditions where water is a scarce resource under human, animal and vegetation competition. The arid and semi arid regions are susceptible to occurrences of drought because their precipitation amount relies on a few short rainfall seasons.

Causes of Worldwide Drought

The natural hazard is as a result of many factors. The causes of drought are categorized into human factors and natural factors. To begin with, we identify the human causes of global drought. Humans have engaged in activities that have had adverse environmental effects. Trees are essential in the reduction of carbon dioxide (which acts as a heat absorbent) in the atmosphere. Deforestation is one of the unnatural causes of drought. The continuous cutting down of trees for fuel, construction materials and industrial purposes has led to the reduction in soil’s water holding capacity and thus causing desertification. These human activities have resulted in the increase in global temperature and deterioration of the global climate. In the absence of enough trees, the temperatures are retained causing a high evaporation rate with low condensation and precipitation. The soil is also weakened by lack of humus and the plant roots that act as binding properties of the soil particles.

Another human activity that causes drought is the construction of dams in the upstream parts of rivers. These developments are economically advantageous in generating electricity and preservation of water but also have adverse effects on the downstream parts of rivers. The dams and large water reservoirs cut off the flow of downstream water leading to the shortage or lack of water in the lower regions. The lack of water may cause dryness that result in famine.

Apart from trees, other vegetation covers such as grass and weeds are essential in protecting the soil from erosion and water loss. Overstocking, overgrazing of animals and over cultivation of land can lead to the loosening of soil particles and reducing the water holding capacity and soil fertility. The loam top soil also become loose and is blown away by the wind thus the soils slowly become agriculturally unproductive thus adding to the drought severity. A good example, overgrazing resulted to the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s in North America that formed from soil erosion and dust storms over the Great Plains.

The industrial revolution era led to the beginning of technological civilization in the worlds. This period saw the increase in the number of industries globally. However, industrialization introduced a new form of environmental degradation. Industrial gaseous emissions into the atmosphere have lead to the formation of carbon gases layer that leads to global warming. The industrial gases released into the atmosphere have resulted in the destruction of the protective O-Zone layer and thus causing an increase in global temperature and frequent drought occurrences. Studies in regions such as America and East Africa have revealed that green house emissions from industries have led to increase temperatures and aridity in the world.

Other human activities that trigger drought event include the lack of sufficient water storage facilities, water pollution, lack of a sustainable mechanism for increasing the available water capacity, poor mechanisms of water distribution network and inappropriate water consumption patterns. These human factors are avoidable if the national governments can formulate and implement strategies to improve water usage and generation.

Nature also causes drought. One of the natural causes of the problem is the deficiency of precipitation. Water vapor in the atmosphere causes rainfall through the convention that results in strong atmospheric inversion and produce heavy rainfall or stratiform process that causes less precipitation in an area. Drought occurs if the three factors fail to provide sufficient amount of water in a region. High-pressure systems and winds carrying continental air rather than oceanic vapor may lead to the lack of rainfall in an area. Also, high rate of sunlight reflection may also trigger a severe drought in a region.

Prolonged dry seasons also trigger drought in the world. In the tropics, the Intertropical Convergence Zone results in the dry and wet seasons. During the dry season, humidity in the air is insufficient, water sources like rivers and boreholes dry up, and also vegetation dies out. Insufficient humidity leads to excess evaporation of ground moisture and high rate of evapotranspiration in plants, a condition that worsens the drought occurrence.

El-Niño, which affects the temperatures in the ocean, is another cause of worldwide drought. El Niño is the change in sea surface temperature changes that cause a change in global climate. This event causes a movement of the air masses above the seas and ocean bodies causing the wet regions to become dry. During the winter season, the northern hemisphere experiences warmer and dryer conditions that during the regular times. After the El Niño heavy rainfall, La-Nina, a period of severe cold and dry conditions may lead drought in parts of Africa, California and Australia.

Finally, global warming has resulted in the occurrence of floods and drought in the world, and it anticipated increasing the frequency and intensity of the hazard. Global warming causes the disappearance of glaciers and polar ice, rising above sea level, destruction of the corals and changes in wildlife migration patterns. The phenomenon causes the occurrence of sudden heat waves that trigger insects and pest infestation, forests and bush fires and diseases prevalence in animals and plants.

Effects of World Wide Drought

A worldwide drought has significant impacts on the global population and the environment. The impacts of global drought can be divided into Social effects, Livelihood and Economic, Environmental and Ecological and Psychological impacts. It is important to access these results so as to understand the magnitude of the issue and develop effective measures to combat it.

Social consequences of drought involve the human health and safety, conflicts that arise as a result of competition for food and water, low living standards, and aids during the disaster. The scarcity of water posses risks on human health. Human beings and animals require water for daily refreshment and domestic consumption. Inadequate amount of safe, fresh water leads to outbreaks of diseases. The concentration of chemicals and oxygen insufficiency in water comes as a result of lack of fresh water to dilute toxins. According to statistics by the World Disaster Report, 2.63 million people were affected by dryness in the period between 1997 and 2006 with 38.87% suffering most in 2002, while approximately 41.82% suffered from drought consequences.

Death of people and livestock is another adverse social effect of drought. Approximately, the number of human beings killed by drought every year are, Asia -81.11 million, Africa (26.69 million), American are 2.57 million and in Europe 0.14 million lives are lost. These deaths occur as a result of dehydration, lack of food and diseases drought associated diseases.

In water-limited areas, people live a poor quality lifestyle. Families tend to live on little or no income in events of prolonged inadequate rainfall. People who rely on agricultural production experience poverty whenever drought strikes as a result of the destruction of their crops and death of livestock. Poverty, which means living below $1.25 a day, destroys the families’ ties and they end up getting into unending domestic conflicts. Inter- community and intra-community violence may also arise as a result of competition for water sources as people try to claim control over few water points. People and animals also compete for this scarce resource leading to human-wildlife conflicts. Violence may also erupt as a consequence of human and animal migration to places with plenty of water.

Drought, like every other natural disaster, has its adverse effects on human psychology. In times of such an event, people suffer from stress, anxiety, depression and withdrawal symptoms. People are scared of prolonged situations that could cause death and human suffering. Psychological poverty also strikes persons in periods of no rainfall. This poverty is aggravated by a feeling of mistrust on the authorities and view that other people do not care about their suffering. An example is the Australia’s 1994-95 drought, whereby the citizens exhibited little or no trust in the government and the experts who issue false predictions of the drought.

Economic impacts of drought are also significant to understand. Adverse effects are experienced in the agricultural and another related economic sectors. Farmers who rely on precipitation to produce their crops are faced with frustrations as a result of the destruction of farm produce and huge losses incurred as a result of unexpected rainfall failure. During drought seasons, farm business owners tend to reduce capital purchases, seek other sources of employment, and sell stocks and decrease frequency and level of farm maintenance practices. Besides, drought is also connected to insects and diseases infestation on crops thus increasing the cost of maintenance in holdings. The death of animals causes a great shock on the farmers and industries that rely on the animal product such as meat, milk, eggs and skins.

During drought, farmers incur losses, capital flow reduces, and there is the high rate of unemployment, increased taxes and high risks on financial securities. The governments increase their expenditure in a bid to import food and other commodities that exhibit shortage in the drought-stricken country. The World Disaster Report recorded that more than 4% of the US$ 66.8 b damage cost is incurred as a result of drought. The affected countries also experience energy shortage as a result of the shortage of water that generates hydroelectric power. Industries experience the lack of agricultural raw materials and other inputs such as timber and animal products. Finally, government debt rises when the affected nation as a result of deficit expenditure on food, water and electricity exports from other countries or states.

Environmental impacts of drought are also significant in understandings the severity and effects of drought. Adverse environmental consequences include soil erosion, bush fires, destruction of natural plants and animal species and drying of water sources. The destruction of natural habitats leads to migration of animals, birds and insects to other unaffected regions posing overpopulation, disease spread and competition risks. Frequent drought occurrences in the world result in the expansion of the dry areas. The dry regions of the world are expected to increase as a result of the expanding atmospheric circulation patterns. These patterns involve the rising of moist tropic air and descending as dry air in the subtropics.

Pros of the Topic

The topic has several pros concerning the understanding drought. The topic tries to trace the factors that result to the occurrence of global drought. Understanding the causes of the issue enables the government to develop policies that prevent environmental degradation. In the America, the government accessed the causes of California drought the state and federal governments developed strategies and policies that prevent the people from further destruction. The governments have established rules and policies regulation logging in the bid to reduce deforestation. Another measure taken by the California government is imposing fines on anyone found misusing water or polluting the sources of water.

The topic has been widely used by the United Nations Organization (UNO), through UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program) and other international communities. Accessing the causes and impacts of drought has enabled global authorities to establish policies, such as the Carbon Tax, which seek to regulate some carbon emissions from factories. An example is the Australia’s carbon tax policy that stands at $24.15, since 1 st July 2012. These policies are crucial in reducing the severity of global warming and its effects. Researchers have developed recommendations that assist in regulating the overstocking and grazing of animals among the pastoral communities.

The topic is also important in developing strategies used to help victims of the drought. The IMF and other international financial institutions have set aside funds for disaster management. The UN has come up with various refugees programs that aim at assisting drought refugees and victims. The governments can reduce the severity of the impacts of drought by study the signs of the consequences. The world population can use the topic to acquire knowledge about drought, its causes, consequences and methods of preventing and combating drought.

Worldwide drought is defined as the precipitation deficiency that extends over a long period. The natural calamity causes a reduction of the world’s total water capacity of 119000 km³. Worldwide drought is among the fierce natural calamities that have claimed most lives over the past decades with more than 250000 deaths experienced since the year 1994. The disaster in caused by some factors that are classified in natural and human factors. Artificial causes include deforestation that results to desertification, upstream dams construction, industrial emissions and overgrazing of animals. Natural causes of drought include the ocean currents, global warming, prolonged dry seasons and the El Nino.

The impacts of global drought are felt social, economically, psychologically and even in the environment. Stress, poverty, inflation of prices of the scarce resources, bushfires, and erosion, are some of the common effects of the natural calamity. It is crucial for everyone to study the topic on causes and effects of worldwide drought for the purpose of learning measure to prevent and combat future occurrences of this global disaster. The question is important when learned in learning institutions and through media networks to equip people with sufficient education about drought.

The increasing rate of climatic change demands that governments should introduce national disaster mitigation policies that are efficient and sustainable. . The organizations such as World Meteorological Organization and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD in collaboration with other agencies are working hard to come up with the long lasting solutions to fight the disaster. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Sec-Gen Michel Jarraud observed that the climatic change is expected to continue worsening, and he called for risk-based national drought policies. The global human population should exercise responsibility when interacting with nature to avoid environmental degradation that triggers drought. The world meteorological organizations should develop strong means of predicting and preparing for future occurrence of worldwide drought. These strategies will help to reduce the severity of the problem

In conclusion, drought is a natural disaster that has to shape the world today and will continue to influence life in the world. It is important that people and animals should carefully interact with the environment to avoid artificial triggers of the issue. The topic of causes and effects of worldwide drought is one of the most important studies that should be introduced in the world’s education system.

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Essay on drought: definition, causes and regions.

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Essay on Drought: Definition, Causes, Regions and Other Details!

The most common cause for drought is failure of rains. The tanks, wells and similar underground water reserves remain unchanged. As a result there is not enough water available through hand pumps, wells and other traditional sources that depend on underground reserves of water.

Dry parched lands wherein cracks have developed, failed crops, starving cattle and human beings are common sights in newspapers during the drought season. Acute scarcity of water leads to human misery in multiple forms. There is no food or fodder. Drinking water is scarce. Wells dry up. There is no water in the traditional tanks. Families move out of their homes to distant places in search of employment.

What Causes Drought :

Vulnerable regions :.

There are certain chronic drought affected regions. They include West Rajasthan and the Kutchtch regions of Gujarat. The main reason is their geographical location. The Monsoons are too weak by the time they reach there. Degradation of environment by human beings also adds to the severity of the problem.

Other prominently drought prone areas are Western Orissa, Rayalsema and Telengana areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Central Maharashtra, interior Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu. It may sound surprising but Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are States that suffer from both floods and drought. It has been estimated that around 70% of cultivable land in India is Drought prone.

In Rajasthan, some areas have been experiencing very little rains for three years consecutively. The plight of people in those affected regions is hard to imagine. The worst affected by droughts are the marginal farmers. Landless labourers and other persons from economically backward section of the society. Tribals who depend on forest produce for their livelihood also suffer a lot in times of drought.

Compounding Factors :

Apart from scanty rainfall, a number of other factors also adversely affect the magnitude of droughts. Depletion of green cover is one such factor. Rainwater falling over barren land is washed away into the rivulets and from there into the sea. There is nothing on the soil to hold it. The underground reserves get no time for getting recharged in these circumstances.

Effects of Droughts :

Farmers are the worst to suffer when the rains fail. They lose crops and are left with no fodder for their cattle. Repeated droughts cut down the volume of agricultural production. Insufficient market supplies push up prices of foods grains making them beyond the reach of poor people. Since these people have little or no savings, they become the worst victims of famine conditions.

The burden of fetching water for household consumption invariably falls on the women. In addition, they have to collect wood for fuel and fodder for the domestic cattle. All these chores add to their physical burden. Traditionally women get little nutrition from the family meals, being in most cases content with what is left over.

People living in desert lands have to face water scarcity even in normal times. Their condition becomes worse under drought conditions. Since there is no work at their usual sites, families are forced to move out in search of employment.

Children are also the worst victims of drought conditions. Newspapers carry horrible tales of children having been sold by starving parents. These children end up as bonded labourers or get forced into yet more degrading occupations. Their schooling gets disrupted and any hopes for their future lie shattered.

Drought Impact- The Way Out :

Unlike earthquakes or cyclones, droughts can be predicted much in advance. They give ample time for the State authorities to prepare for and cope with the problems raised by drought. The quantity and duration of rainfall can be predicted by Meteorological Department with fair degree of accuracy.

The intensity and impact of droughts can be countered through a series of preventive as well as curative measures. It is very important that through small scale and cottage industry promotion, the dependence on agriculture should be drastically reduced in drought prone areas.

Rain water harvesting projects executed through community cooperation have been a great success in some parts of Rajasthan. The success model need to be repeated in other regions too.

Forest cover should be increased through plantation.

Arid cultivation technologies should be researched upon and extended to drought prone areas.

Drought Management strategies should be made popular through involvement of the community.

Crop insurance schemes should be introduced.

Role of Students in Drought Management:

1. Water is a very scarce commodity in some parts of the country. And yet some people who can afford tend to waste it. Bathing through buckets and mugs consumes much less water than showers or tubs. Water from the bathroom can be led into the garden. Cars can be swapped rather than being washed by jet. Students should make people aware of these and even monitor that no wasteful practices are followed.

2. Rain water falling on roofs and open spaces can be harvested. Instead of it flowing into the drain, it could be redirected into a well or even the bore- well.

3. Plantation of trees and caring for them is something that each one can do, it would go a long way in recharging ground water reserves with whatever water is received through rains.

4. Care must be taken in choosing trees to be planted. The ones like Eucalyptus absorb all the water around them and must be avoided in arid regions.

Conserving Traditional Water Resources :

Long before the system of piped water in homes came into existence, there used to be a variety of water resources. Through neglect overtime, many of them have dried up or become out of use. Now that we are all feeling the crunch of water scarcity, we have to reenergize those sources.

Naturally occurring water holes are common phenomena in hilly regions. In some cases, village communities built small tanks that were fed water from hill streams or springs.

The practice needs to be revived and encouraged.

Flood irrigation leads to plenty of wastage. It also creates water logging problems.

Drip irrigation, irrigation through channels with pucca beds or bamboo pipes as practiced in Meghalaya saves water from being wasted.

Seasonal streams are at some places used to feed catchment basins. Channels are built to connect the streams to the tanks and the stored water becomes available for both domestic use as well as irrigation.

Conservation in Water Surplus Areas :

Water conservation is important both in areas where water is scarce and where water is abundant. Modern technology is capable of transporting surplus water to areas thousands of kilometers away where even a glass full may be luxury.

There is already talk about having a water grid that would connect major rivers all over the country. Such a project can take care of both the floods and the drought situations.

Related Articles:

• Drought Prone Areas of India | Geography
• Drought: Essay on Drought (With Diagrams)

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Causes of Drought

Dry weather that lasts for an extended amount of time is known as a drought. severe crop damage and water supply shortages. It also causes impacts on vegetation, animals, and people. It can also be called a long-term drought. period with less-than-average amounts of rain or snow in a particular region. There are leading causes of drought-like lack of rainfall, deforestation resulting from cutting down of trees, drying out of rivers and lakes, soil degradation, hunger and famine, climate change, and others.

Hunger and famine are among the most causes of drought Droughts result in insufficient water being available to support food crops, whether through natural precipitation or irrigation using reserve water resources. People go hungry when a drought undermines or destroys food sources, and famine occurs when a severe drought lasts for an extended period. The most egregious example is the famine in Ethiopia in 1985, which was caused by a lethal mix of a severe drought and a dangerously inept government, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Climate change also causes drought, which impacts increasing precipitation in wet regions and decreasing precipitation in dry parts as temperatures rise. Heated air will hold more water in wetter regions, resulting in more significant rain events. In contrast, in drier places, warmer temperatures will cause water to evaporate more quickly, resulting in smaller rain events. Climate change also modifies significant atmospheric circulation patterns, leading storm tracks to deviate from their regular trajectories and become more severe. In turn, this amplifies the severity of extreme weather events, which is one of the reasons climate models project that the already arid United States Southwestern or the Middle East will likely get drier in the future. ( Ummenhofer,2009)

Soil degradation occurs whenever protective plant cover, particularly forest cover, is destroyed, exposing the soil beneath the surface. Furthermore, intensive farming, which entails deep plowing and the application of chemicals that degrade soil structure, is an often observed cause. A reduction in soil cover or structure limits the soil’s capability of absorbing and holding water, resulting in increased runoff and a reduction in the amount of allocated time for water to infiltrate the lower layers of soil. As a result, soils dry out quickly and cannot promote the growth of vegetation and commodities, resulting in agricultural droughts in the near term. This is particularly severe in countries such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where soil moisture is essential for agriculture in 95 percent of the country. As a result of increased runoff and decreased infiltration and precipitation of rainwater into soils, there is little groundwater contributing to the system, resulting in a longer-term hydrological drought. (Haile,2019)

The over-irrigation (which depletes water supplies) and over-farming (which negatively impacts the soil structure) of land, both legitimate agricultural practices, can frequently result in drought. It is also possible that deforestation will result in a drought since eliminating tree cover renders soil more sensitive to erosion factors such as wind and water. As a result, human activities can either produce a drought or exacerbate the effects of dryness caused by extreme weather changes, depending on the situation (Epule et al., 2014)

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees. Trees release moisture to the atmosphere, resulting in clouds forming and rainfall falling, returning the moisture to the ground. Less water is available to feed the water cycle when they are cut, making entire regions more vulnerable to drought.

Epule, E. T., Peng, C., Lepage, L., & Chen, Z. (2014). A critical review is the causes, effects, and challenges of Sahelian droughts.  Regional environmental change ,  14 (1), 145-156.

Haile, G. G., Tang, Q., Sun, S., Huang, Z., Zhang, X., & Liu, X. (2019). Droughts in East Africa: Causes, impacts, and resilience.  Earth-science reviews ,  193 , 146-161.

Ummenhofer, C. C., England, M. H., McIntosh, P. C., Meyers, G. A., Pook, M. J., Risbey, J. S., … & Taschetto, A. S. (2009). What causes southeast Australia’s worst droughts?.  Geophysical Research Letters ,  36 (4).

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Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Drought — A Report On The Droughts

A Report on The Droughts

• Categories: Drought Environmental Issues

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Published: Oct 2, 2020

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Essay on Drought for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Drought is a condition when there are no rains for a long period of time. The occurrence of drought is a common sight in many parts of the country. The consequences of this condition are drastic and many times irreversible. Drought is the condition when certain parts of the world are deprived of rain for months or at times the entire season. There are several reasons that cause drought-like situations in different parts and prove to be fatal.

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Long and Short Essay on Drought in English

Here are some short and long essays on Drought of varying lengths to help you with the topic. You can choose any drought essay given below:

Drought Essay – 1 (200 words)

Drought which is marked by the absence of or low rain in a particular region for a long period of time occurs because of various reasons including global warming, deforestation and many other human activities. This climatic condition can cause disastrous impact on the environment as well as the living beings. Some of the effects of drought include failure of crops, financial loss, price rise and soil degradation.

Several Indian states have been hit by drought leading to mass destruction of crops and disruption of the normal functioning of the society. Many parts have even witnessed famine leading to the death of several people due to starvation. Looking at the adversities faced by people in such areas, the government of India has come up with various drought relief plans however a lot more needs to be done to control this problem and deal with its after effects.

Some of the solutions suggested in this direction are rainwater harvesting, recycling and reuse of water, controlling deforestation, sea water desalination, cloud seeding, growing more plants and trees, stopping overall waste of water. However, most of these cannot be achieved if the general public does not support the cause. Each one should thus take it as a responsibility to contribute his/ her bit to curb the problem.

Drought Essay – 2 (300 words)

Drought, which results in the shortage of water, is mainly caused due to lack of rainfall. The situation is problematic and can prove to be fatal for those living in the drought-affected areas. It is particularly a curse for the farmers as it destroys their crops. Continuous drought-like situation also leads to the soil becoming less fertile.

Causes of Drought

There are various factors that lead to drought. Here is a look at these causes in detail:

• Deforestation

Deforestation is said to be one of the main causes of shortage of rainfall that leads to drought. Adequate amount of trees and vegetation is required on land to limit evaporation of water, store enough water on land and attract rainfall. Deforestation and construction of concrete buildings in their place has caused a major misbalance in the environment. It lowers the capacity of the soil to hold water and increases evaporation. Both these are a cause of low rainfall.

• Low Surface Water Flow

Rivers and lakes are the main sources of surface water in various regions around the world. In extreme summers or because of usage of surface water for various human activities, the water in these sources dries down leading to drought.

• Global Warming

The negative impact of global warming on the environment is known to all. Among other issues, the emission of greenhouse gases that results in the rise in earth’s temperature has resulted in the rise in evaporation. High temperature is also a cause of wildfires that worsens the drought-condition.

Apart from these, excessive irrigation is also one of the causes of drought as it drains the surface water.

Though the causes of drought are largely known and are mostly the result of misuse of water resources and other non-environmental friendly human activities, nothing much is being done to curb this problem. It is time the governments of various countries should join hands to overcome this global issue.

Drought Essay – 3 (400 words)

Drought occurs when a region receives no or less than the average amount of rainfall leading to water shortage, failure of crops and disruption of normal activities. Various factors such as global warming, deforestation and construction of buildings have given rise to drought.

Types of Droughts

While some areas are marked by complete absence of rain for a long period of time, others receive less than the average amount of precipitation, yet others might face drought for some part of the year – So the severity and type of drought varies from place to place and from time to time. Here is a look at the different types of droughts:

• Meteorological Drought

When there is a reduction in rainfall in a region for a particular period – it can be for few days, months, seasons or year – it is said to be hit by meteorological drought. In India an area is said to be hit by meteorological drought when the annual rainfall is 75% less than the average rainfall.

• Hydrological Drought

This is basically associated with the reduction in water. Hydrological droughts are often a result of two successive meteorological droughts. These are divided into two categories:

• Surface Water Drought
• Ground Water Drought
• Soil Moisture Drought

As the name suggests, this situation involves inadequate soil moisture that hinders crop growth. This is an outcome of meteorological drought as it leads to lower water supply to soil and greater water loss due to evaporation.

• Agricultural Drought

When the meteorological or hydrological droughts lead to negative impacts on the crop yield in a region, it is said to be hit by agricultural drought.

This is said to be the most severe drought situation. People in such regions do not get any access to food and there is mass starvation and devastation. The government needs to intervene in such a situation and food is supplied to these places from other places.

• Socio-Economic Drought

This situation occurs when there is a decrease in the availability of food and loss of income due to the failure of crop and the social security and access to food for the people in such areas is at risk.

Drought is a difficult situation to deal with especially if the severity is high. Several people are affected due to drought each year. While the occurrence of drought is a natural phenomenon, we can certainly reduce the human activities that lead to such a situation. Government must also come up with effective measures to deal with its after effects.

Drought Essay – 4 (500 words)

Drought, a condition that occurs due to no or very low rainfall, has been classified into different categories including meteorological drought, famine, socio-economic drought, hydrological drought and agricultural drought. Whatever be the type of drought, it disturbs the normal functioning of the regions affected.

Impacts of Drought

The regions hit by drought take a good amount of time to recover from the disaster caused, particularly if the severity of the drought is high. Drought disrupts the day-to-day lives of the people and has a widespread impact on various sectors. Here is how this natural disaster impacts the lives of the people living in the affected region:

• Agricultural Loss

A major impact occurs on the agriculture and other related sectors as these are directly dependent on the ground and surface water. Loss of crop yields, low rate of livestock production, rise in plant disease and wind erosion are some of the major impacts of drought.

• Financial Loss for Farmers

Farmers are worst effected by drought. The crops in the drought hit areas do not yield and the farmers whose sole income is generated through farming are worst affected by this situation. In an attempt to make their ends meet, many farmers end up in debt. The cases of farmer suicides due to such situation are also common.

• Wildlife at Risk

The cases of forest fires increase during droughts and this puts the wildlife population at high risk. Forests get burnt down and many wild animals end up losing life while others lose their shelter.

The prices of various cereals, fruits, vegetables rise because of low supply and high demand. The prices of food items such as jams, sauces and drinks that are produced from those particular fruits and vegetables also increase. In certain cases, goods are imported from other places to meet the demands of the people and hence the prices levied on the same are high. The retailers who offer goods and services to the farmers also face financial loss due to reduced business.

• Degradation of Soil

The soil loses moisture due to continuous drought and its quality degrades. It takes a lot of time for some areas to regain the ability to yield crops.

• Overall Impact on Environment

Damage is caused to various species of plants and animals, there is degradation of landscape quality and biodiversity is impacted. The quality of air and water is also affected due to drought. While some of these conditions are temporary others may last long and might even turn permanent.

• Public Safety at Stake

Lack of food and increased prices of different commodities may give rise to crimes such as theft and this can put public safety at stake. Conflict may also occur between water users thereby causing tension among general public.

Drought Prone Countries

Some of the countries that are more prone to drought include Albania, Afghanistan, Armenia, Bahrain, Northeast parts of Brazil, Burma, Cuba, Morocco, Iran, China, Bangladesh, Botswana, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Drought is one of the most disastrous natural calamities. Famine, that is the most severe forms of drought, ends in major socio, economic and environmental loss for the regions affected.

Drought Essay – 5 (600 words)

Drought, a condition when certain regions are faced with scarcity of water due to low or no rainfall, has been the cause of several problems in India. There are many areas in the country that are hit by drought each year while others are faced with this condition occasionally. Drought is caused due to various factors such as deforestation, global warming and inadequate surface water and has severe impact on the lives of the people living in the affected areas as well as the general health of the environment.

Drought Prone Areas in India

Many regions in the country are hit by drought each year. Statistics reveal that approximately one-sixth of the total geographical area of the country that inhabits around 12% of the population is drought prone.

One of the most drought prone states in the country is Rajasthan. As many as eleven districts in this state are hit by drought. These regions receive scanty or no rainfall and have low level of ground water. Drought is also a common phenomenon in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Almost every district here is hit by drought each year.

Here is a look at some of the other regions in the country that face frequent drought:

• Saurashtra and Kutch, Gujarat
• Coimbatore in Kerala
• Mirzapur Plateau and Palamu, Uttar Pradesh
• Kalahandi, Orissa
• Purulia, West Bengal
• Tirunelveli District, South of Vaigai River, Tamil Nadu

Possible Solutions for Drought

• Rain Water Harvesting

This is the technique of collecting and storing rainwater in tanks and natural reservoirs to use it later. Rain water harvesting must be made mandatory for all. The idea behind this is to put the available water to use.

• Sea Water Desalination

Sea water desalination must be done so that the vast amount of water stored in the sea can be used for the purpose of irrigation and other agricultural activities. The government must make major investment in this direction.

• Recycle Water

Waste water must be purified and recycled for reuse. This can be done in many ways. Small steps such as installing rain barrel, collecting the waste water from RO systems, usage of shower buckets, saving water from washing veggies and creating rain garden can help in this direction. The water collected by these means can be used to water the plants.

• Cloud Seeding

Cloud seeding is done to modify weather. It is a way to increase the amount of precipitation. Potassium iodide, silver iodide and dry ice are some of the chemicals used for the purpose of cloud seeding. The government should invest in cloud seeding to avoid drought in the areas prone to this condition.

• Plant More Trees

Deforestation and the building of concrete structures is one of the causes of scanty rainfall. Efforts must be made to plant more trees. This simple step can change the climatic conditions and also bring about other positive changes in the environment.

• Water Usage

Each one should take it as a responsibility to stop the wastage of water so that there is availability of enough water even when during times of low rainfall. Government must take steps to keep a check on the usage of water.

• Campaigns must be Run

The government must run campaigns stating the benefits of rain water harvesting, planting more trees and other measures that the general public can take to fight drought. This is a good way to spread awareness and control the problem.

Though the government has put certain drought relief plans in place however these are not enough to overcome the drastic problem of drought. It is important to take strong steps to avoid this problem. Everyone should contribute their bit to control this problem.

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• Essay on Flood
• Paragraph on Flood

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Home Essay Examples Environment Drought

Drought in Australia: Causes, Impacts And Responses

• Category Environment
• Subcategory Natural Disasters
• Topic Drought

Nature of Droughts

National Geographic defines a drought as “an extended period of unusually dry weather when there is not enough rain.” However, this is only one factor in the broad term of drought as there are four different types of droughts.

• Meteorological drought: when there has been a decrease in precipitation than normal over a period of time
• Agricultural drought: when soil moisture is decreasing faster due to evo-transpiration than it can be replenished.
• Hydrological drought: minimal amount of water in water sources such as streams, rivers, reservoirs, etc.
• Socioeconomic drought: when demand for water exceeds the supply

Causes of Droughts

Australia is the second-driest continent in the world and is subject to El Nino and La Nina events that alternate approximately every four years. The most recent event was an El Nino in 2015 which is commonly associated with the drier than average conditions in the east of Australia. It occurs when the sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean becomes a lot warmer than average causing a shift in the atmospheric circulation. Usually trade winds blow from east to west across the Pacific Ocean, however in El Nino events often the trade winds are weakened or even reversed. This causes reduced rainfall, warmer temperatures, increased frost, reduced cyclones, later monsoon onset, increased fire danger and decreased alpine snow depths.

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Another cause for droughts in Australia is the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). This is the cause of the movement of lots of air above the Indian Ocean. However, this past year the Indian Ocean off Western Australia was cooler than average. If the water in the ocean is cooler than average it is referred to as a positive IOD, causing drier and weaker winds reducing rainfall resulting in droughts in Australia.

Other causes for droughts include people overusing water, the ratio of population to available water is unbalanced, not receiving precipitation, the river upstream of an area running out of water. infrastructure blocking water sources and pollution from humans

Australia Case Study

Drought impacts.

Economic Impact: The image provided is a ground-level shot of starving sheep. This portrays that as drought affects the soil moisture there is no water for grass to grow, therefore there is no feed nor water for the animals thus reducing livestock numbers. With reduced numbers of livestock farmers incomes are reduced. This in conjunction with having to buy in feed creates reduced farm income. To still have enough money to live on, farmers sell their malnourished livestock and let go of staff. This hinders Australia’s economy as unemployment rates rise, local processing and food industries suffer from lack of resources and Australia cannot export wool to other countries. Drought has an enormous impact on Australia’s economy which is growing weaker and slower as the drought continues.

Environmental Impact: The image is an oblique aerial shot of an empty dam. The drought caused the dam to empty as the rate of the water evaporating to the water being replenished was too great. As depicted, the dam is cracked and dry, as there is no moisture in the soil due to lack of rain because of the drought. This is a huge environmental impact as there is no water for the plants surrounding the dam to grow, and water for animals.

Social Impact: The image is a ground-level shot of the trees painted blue for the farmers who have committed suicide as a result of the drought. Farmers are under immense stress and anxiety because of the lack of rain for many months. They are being forced to buy extra feed for their livestock, but as there is no rain crops cannot grow making feed harder to come by. in conjunction with this there is no water for livestock to drink. Farmers are being forced to sell their land and livestock as they simply cannot afford to keep it. This causes farmers to have mental health issues regarding lack of income, losing the land they have grown up on and also worked so hard to keep. They are often living in isolated areas where they are lonely and unable to seek help. The suicide rates for farmers is 20 in every 100 000 people but they are often too afraid to seek help due to the stigma that they do not need it. It is not only men who feel there is no other option other than taking their life, but women as well. Studies have shown that children whose parents have tried to commit suicide, begin to have suicidal thoughts. Droughts have such a great social impact but people who do not live in rural areas are oblivious to it.

Drought Responses

Individual response to drought: https://www.nswfarmers.org.au/NSWFA/Posts/The_Farmer/Environment/Drought_Affected_Farmers.aspx

Currently 99 % of NSW is in drought, and farmers are trying to get through learning from past droughts. The recent summer was the driest it has ever been with farmers feeding livestock and dams drying up, however farmers have learnt from the past and continuing their jobs and making management decisions depending on the drought so there is still fodder and grain to be found. Wayne and Lynette Culverson are a couple living in drought on three properties worth 295 hectares north of Orange. They are struggling to feed their sheep, their dams are drying up, so they are forced to buy hay from Victoria because there is no availability in NSW, they have to not join their ewes and begin selling their stock. His previous experiences with drought has taught him to look after his and Lynette’s mental health, supporting each other through this tough time. The government has begun to provide assistant measures for farmer and are providing low interest loans, and repayment free period for to cover freight costs. Terry Smith runs a station between Broken Hill and Menindee says ‘conditions are getting of hand’ as they cannot even put stock agistment. The kangaroos are also becoming a major problem, but Terry has hope that it “will rain one day”.

Group response to drought:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-16/where-has-drought-aid-been-allocated/10378278

In the states affected by the drought the councils are supporting and aiding their local farmers. As nearly all of NSW is in drought the councils are discounting water prices, providing rate exemptions and free hay bales. In Gunnedah the council has given 285 bales of hay to local farmers as well as voting to donate the bales coming from the long grass at the airport. They are also offering movie tickets to donate to farmers in need of support and they donated 2.2 ML of non-potable water to the community. Gunnedah’s sister city, Lane Cove council, has begun to assist in drought relief, and are talking about what support can be given. 23 % of the community in Lane Cove are volunteering to help with drought affected areas as well as being encouraged to take holidays in regional areas to increase local economies. Other NSW councils are beginning to put in place water saving measures for their communities and offering farmers water free of charge. For example, in Lithgow they are making water half price to farmers within their local area. The government is also adding financial aid to drought affected farmers and their communities. It is not just in NSW but local governments in Queensland have begun assisting to combat the drought.

Government response to drought:

Councils offer aid to drought-stricken farmers

The State and Federal governments have agreed that the drought is a ‘severe drain on the economy’ and they were going to offer aid. They have offered concessional loans to farmers so they can improve the infrastructure on their farms. The Federal Government puts $1.8 billion towards drought aid and drought preparedness. It is believed that these loans are working so well as the government is allowing the farmers to switching to lower interest rate loans. The Federal government is giving a further $15 million to the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal which is slowly giving money to local communities so they can improve facilities and having activities to bring people together in this tough time. The State government is paying a large amount of money to go into transport subsidies and waivers on State fees like council rates and car registration. NSW has spent about a billion dollars on drought preparedness, emergency relief and mental health surfaces. They are also offering transport subsidies to help farmers to transport livestock to the market. Whereas banks are beginning to keep branches open in areas where they were going to close, offer discount loan rates, deferring payments, allowing offset on the interest and waivers for costs that increase or extend loans. They are also making donations to charities such as the Red Cross and Rural Aid.

Further Recommendation:

Individual: Strategies that individuals can undertake for droughts in NSW are restricting water usage, like showering under three minutes once daily and not using water to wash driveways or pavements instead using a broom except if absolutely necessary. They also should wash their cars less regularly only once every two months on grass. Another strategy that individual should do is support their family and friends through hardships. During drought because during drought they have less water than average and using less water makes that minimal amount of water last longer. They need to understand that during drought their mental health is unstable and that drought impacts people’s mental health and makes them depressed and anxious. If they are ever feeling overwhelmed and depressed because of the hardships during the drought, they need to know how and when to seek help. Hope and a positive mentality is the best way to cope and to get through the hardships of drought.

Group: Councils can encourage local farmers to use drip irrigation to use less water with the same benefits as previous methods. They can reduce the price of water for farmers so they can afford to buy more as they need more because during drought there is lower than average rainfall. They can also raise awareness in communities that do not understand the impact of drought in rural areas Advertisements could be run to convey the effects on drought and the impacts it has on the country, communities and individuals. They can also fund facilities in isolated areas to help the mental health of farmers which is becoming a worse issue. Other groups like charities can raise money to send to drought affected areas so farmers can afford to buy feed for their livestock and water for their crops. For example, sending hay to rural towns in desperate need for feed for their livestock.

Government: The government could implement laws for water usage, so people are more likely to abide by them. For example, people cannot water their lawn between 10 am in the morning and 5 pm in the afternoon because the sun is the hottest during the day and the water will not have any affect during that time. The government can also send funds to local communities for mental health facilities for farmers suffering depression and anxiety during the drought. They can also fund drought aid for drought affected farmers so they can survive this tough time. They can also fund the advertisements that councils run illustrating the consequences of drought. Another strategy that the government could undertake to help in the drought is send money to charities that are drought orientated, so they can send more to farmers in need. This is important so that Australia’s economy does not slow down and weaken as many farmers have a fluctuating income during the drought.

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Four Wild Ways to Save the Koala (That Just Might Work)

To protect Australia’s iconic animals, scientists are experimenting with vaccine implants, probiotics, tree-planting drones and solar-powered tracking tags.

A veterinary nurse treats a koala infected with chlamydia at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Currumbin, Australia. Credit...

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By Emily Anthes

Photographs and Video by Chang W. Lee

This story is part of a series on wildlife conservation in Australia, which Emily Anthes reported from Australia and New York.

• April 15, 2024

It was spring in Queensland, Australia, a season when many wild animals find themselves in trouble, and the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital was a blur of fur and feathers.

A groggy black swan emerged from the X-ray room, head swaying on its long neck. A flying fox wore a tiny anesthetic mask. An injured rainbow lorikeet squawked in its cage. (“Very angry,” a sign warned.)

“We see everything,” Dr. Michael Pyne, the hospital’s senior veterinarian. Also on the schedule for the day: three eagles, two carpet pythons, a blue-faced honeyeater, a short-eared brushtail possum and, Dr. Pyne said, “a whole heap of koalas.”

More than a dozen koalas were convalescing in open-air enclosures, wrapping their woolly arms around the trunks of eucalyptus trees. The wards were often full; in 2023, the hospital admitted more than 400 koalas, a fourfold increase from 2010.

The surge has been driven largely by the spread of chlamydia , a devastating bacterial infection. But the hospital was also seeing more koalas with traumatic injuries, including those caused by cars and dogs. Starving, dehydrated koalas came in during droughts; burned koalas appeared after wildfires. Occasionally, koalas even turned up with injuries caused by cows.

“That’s why they’re endangered,” Dr. Pyne said. “Everything’s against them.”

The koala, long an Australian icon, has become an unfortunate emblem of the country’s biodiversity crisis. The animals are threatened by deforestation, climate change and infectious disease. Together, these forces put the koala at the real risk of extinction . Although koalas are notoriously difficult to count, populations in some places have plummeted by as much as 80 percent , scientists estimate.

“We don’t know what the threshold is where there’s a point of no return,” said Tanya Pritchard, the senior manager for species recovery and landscape restoration at the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia. “So we do need to act pretty urgently.”

Scientists and conservation groups are giving the koala everything they’ve got. Some are pursuing traditional time-tested strategies, including the protection of koala habitats and the advocacy of tougher conservation laws.

Others are trying more experimental approaches, from koala probiotics to tree-planting drones. Many of these projects are in the early stages, and none represent a complete solution. But given the wide array of threats that koalas are facing, saving them might require deploying every available tool.

“At this point,” Ms. Pritchard said, “every koala counts.”

Here are some of the tools in development.

Put shots in arms

Chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted infection in humans, is also widespread in the animal kingdom. How koalas were first infected is unknown, but one possibility is that the marsupials picked up chlamydia from the feces of livestock.

The disease, which can spread through sexual contact and from mothers to joeys, has become staggeringly widespread in parts of Australia. Chlamydia can cause urinary tract infections, blindness and infertility, suggesting that koalas could be in even worse shape than their declining numbers would indicate. “How many of those koalas that are out there can’t breed anymore because chlamydia has made them sterile?” Dr. Pyne said.

Scientists are now collaborating with the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Currumbin, Australia, to test a new chlamydia vaccine in wild koalas. So far, the vaccine is producing “quite spectacular results,” said Ken Beagley, an immunologist at the Queensland University of Technology who led the development of the vaccine.

Across two ongoing studies, more than 300 wild koalas have been vaccinated, and many vaccinated females have gone on to have healthy joeys, some of which have now had joeys of their own, Dr. Beagley said. “It was far better than we expected,” he said of the outcome.

Still, it will be challenging to inoculate thousands of wild koalas with the current vaccine, which requires two shots given 30 days apart. So Dr. Beagley and his colleagues are developing a delayed-release vaccine implant , which could be injected under the skin when a koala receives its first shot. Over the course of several weeks, the small capsule would slowly absorb water and then burst, thus delivering the second dose.

Give them the good microbes

Koalas are notoriously picky eaters with highly unusual tastes. “They feed on a really unpalatable diet of eucalyptus leaves, which is high in fiber, low in protein, high in toxins,” said Michaela Blyton, a molecular ecologist and microbiologist at the University of Queensland.

Living on eucalyptus requires a cooperative community of gut microbes, which help digest the leaves. Dr. Blyton’s work suggests that these microbial communities are so finely tuned that they may dictate which eucalyptus species, of the many that dot Australia, an individual koala can eat. That microbial specificity could explain why koalas are sometimes unable to diversify their diets, even in the face of starvation.

In a 2019 study, Dr. Blyton showed that she could shift koalas’ microbiomes, and expand their diets , by giving them fecal transplants from koalas that dined on a different type of eucalyptus. (To perform the transplant, Dr. Blyton packaged fecal samples from donor koalas in small capsules, which were administered orally.)

Now, she is hoping to use the same approach to maintain microbial equilibrium in koalas taking antibiotics, which are the frontline treatment for chlamydia. The drugs can throw the gut microbiome out of whack, prompting koalas to stop eating altogether, with sometimes fatal results. “It’s a hard ask to get the animal going again, and a lot of the time we just can’t,” said Dr. Blyton, who collaborates with Currumbin and other wildlife hospitals.

Dr. Blyton has developed a technique for freeze-drying fecal samples from healthy koalas, yielding shelf-stable capsules that can be given to koalas with chlamydia as a sort of oral probiotic. Unfortunately, early trial results suggested that administering the capsules was stressful for sick koalas. So Dr. Blyton is now trying to turn the freeze-dried fecal samples into a powder that could be added to other nutritional supplements the animals already receive.

Deploy the drones

Koalas — sedentary, tree-dwelling animals — are tricky to spot in the wild, adding to the challenges of tracking how their populations are faring, identifying critical habitats and safeguarding the animals from threats.

Grant Hamilton, a quantitative ecologist at the Queensland University of Technology, has developed a new koala-spotting system that is powered by artificial intelligence. A drone equipped with a thermal camera flies over the treetops, looking for pockets of body heat hidden under the canopy. Machine learning algorithms can quickly process this footage, tallying the koalas. The scientists then use statistical models to estimate the total koala population in a given area.

The scientists are now teaching local conservation groups how to fly the drones in their own neighborhoods. Dr. Hamilton and his colleagues will then analyze the data to help these organizations identify critical koala habitats that might benefit from protection or restoration. “We can use A.I. to help people to manage their backyards or their parks,” he said. “That’s a really exciting idea.”

The World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, which is currently running a campaign to save or plant two billion trees by 2030, is experimenting with using drones for habitat restoration. Over the course of eight hours, a single tree-planting drone can rain some 40,000 seeds across the landscape.

Drones aren’t suited for all environments, but they offer a way to “scale up this work,” Ms. Pritchard said. “To me, it’s a little bit symbolic of our own plight,” she added. “If we can’t save the koala, as our most important and most loved species, what does that mean for our own situation and the health of our own habitats?”

Harness solar (and people) power

Despite the threats they face, koalas do have one thing going for them. “They are one of the cutest animals on Earth,” said Dr. Romane Cristescu, a conservation ecologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

To harness the public’s natural affection for koalas, she and her colleagues are developing a suite of technological tools, including solar-powered, location-tracking ear tags, which send data to a mobile app. The app, which is still undergoing testing, aims to help Australians get to know the koalas that live in their neighborhoods — “where they go, who they meet, their children, their boyfriend,” Dr. Cristescu said. “We’re going to tell people, ‘Hey, look, that koala’s got a life.’”

Dr. Cristescu hopes that people who develop attachments to their local koalas will be more inclined to support conservation efforts and change their own behaviors, like choosing not to cut down the trees in their yards. “We have a lot more empathy for a koala that has a name and a story,” she said.

The app also encourages users to log koala sightings and to report sick koalas, data that can be sent to scientists and wildlife care teams, she said.

The ear tags could be used for other purposes, too, said Dr. Cristescu, who also leads a research program that uses trained dogs to sniff out koalas and koala scat. After Australia’s catastrophic wildfires in 2019 and 2020, her team used dogs and drones to find and rescue injured koalas. The location-tracking ear tags could provide a quicker way to find koalas in danger, she said.

Emily Anthes is a science reporter, writing primarily about animal health and science. She also covered the coronavirus pandemic. More about Emily Anthes

Chang W. Lee has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram @nytchangster . More about Chang W. Lee

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Scientists never imagined that the blind cave salamanders called olms willingly left their caves. Then, they discovered several at aboveground springs in northern Italy .

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The means by which some whales sing underwater has long been a mystery. A contraption that forced air through the larynxes of three carcasses puts forth an explanation .

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