Question

10 points on effect of drought

Answer 1

Effects of droughts

Water is involved in every part of human life and also for plants and animals. 

There are so many ways that water affects us both directly and indirectly. Let us consider this scenario: 

Assuming that the rains do not come in a particular year. What happens? Crops yield will be very low and farms will have to close production. Local farm produce sellers will have nothing to sell. That will be a DIRECT impact on farmers and sellers. 

But that is not all. 

Because farmers closed production, they will not buy farming materials such as seeds, fertilizers, tractors, and so on. That means many more businesses that produce these materials and equipment will also be affected. They will also lose sales and have to lay people off. When people are laid off, they cannot buy things and cannot take care of their families. That is an indirect effect, and it can be even more devastating, complex and long term.

That is just one way of looking at it. Here are some more: 

Imagine that you turn the tap on and no water flows, and the water authority officials tell you that water will not flow for weeks or months because there is a drought. 

Imagine that the lights are off because the Hydro-electric dam that produces power is closed because of low water levels.

Imagine that people cannot go to school and work because there is the outbreak of diseases as a result of lack of water for sanitation purposes.

What if there are many wild fires because of extreme dryness caused by lack of rains and high temperatures.

So you see, there is a myriad of problems that droughts can bring. All the problems can be grouped into three main impact areas.