What Are The Consequences Of Droughts?

Drought is a period of no rain. All plants rely on rain to survive. If they do not get enough rain, they turn brown, wither and die. Rivers dry up, wells have no water, and water is scarce everywhere. The ground cracks up, the soil crumbles and turns to dust, crops are ruined and there is widespread famine and starvation.

Animals, like plants, also depend on water for survival. Wild animals suffer as they cannot find water to drink or plants to eat. Livestock farmers suffer most in times of drought. Thousands of cattle and sheep perish in Australia during bad droughts, which were frequent in the 1980s. A drought can last for weeks, months or even tears as in the dust bowl of the great plains of USA. During times of drought there is a great misery and people suffer from poverty.

A long period of drought increases the likelihood of forest and bush fires. The dead wood and withered grass will burst into flames with just a spark from a cigarette butt, or from lightning. Farmers and loggers dread long periods of drought as dangerous forest fires are most frequent then. Regions most affected by drought are not deserts, as no crops are grown there. There are no inhabitants and no damage is done. It is in the marginal areas of low, irregular, unreliable and unpredictable rain fall where crops are grown animals are kept and people make a living from the earth, that droughts are most destructive.