What does drought mean to different parts of the globe? by Penny Tranter
Drought is a major problem for at least one country across the world, at any one time, and that is certainly the case today. Droughts are caused by prolonged lack of rainfall and other environmental factors. In the affected countries they often have similar impacts, but the response to them can be very different.
Eritrea in northeast Africa is again in the news, as over 60% of its population is expected to need food aid this year after 4 successive years of drought. Drought appears to be becoming the norm across this region, which in turn is part of the Sahel. This is a wide stretch of land running from the Atlantic Ocean to the African ‘Horn’, which includes Eritrea, between the Sahara desert and equatorial Africa. It has an arid and unstable environment, and it is hard to operate agriculture with very little precipitation - this only amounts to between 100 and 200mm per year - and it is now slowly decreasing. It is very difficult to see what will help to alleviate this situation.
Thailand is experiencing its worst drought for 7 years. King Bhumibol Adulyadej has declared war on the country’s drought and is in charge of an operation to create rain by seeding clouds. The clouds are seeded by rain-making chemicals released by planes that fly daily across the country in an effort to produce rain and hence stop the drought. Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen.
Paraguay has a severe drought in the eastern part of the country, which has led to some reservoirs drying up. In order to combat this problem and provide drinking water to the people of Ciudad Del Este, the local authorities have signed an agreement with a Brazilian company to deliver 1,200,000 litres per day to the stricken area. The question arises what will happen when there is a widespread drought across Brazil - we already have one in the state of Minas Gerais.
In west Australia drought occurs on a fairly regular basis. Although there is not one at the moment, the local Government have unveiled plans to build the biggest Australian desalination plant, powered by 50 giant wind turbines, in order to be able to provide water to its residents. Dr Gallop, the West Australian Premier, explained that it is being built as part of a strategy to meet the declining rainfall that is happening not only in west Australia, but elsewhere across the continent. They currently rely on dams and underground water, and if they are going to meet the needs of the future they are going to need to have an alternative supply, and that is the reason for the building of the desalination plant.
Drought is an issue that has to be taken seriously now and in the future, as every living thing in the world relies on water. Global climate change could mean that these extreme weather events become more severe and more frequent, which is problem that the whole world will have to tackle together.
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