Drought is not natural hazard, so to fight it know how to save water

Drought usually results in a water shortage that seriously interferes with human activity. Draught causes water shortages and crop damage. A drought starts when total rainfall is well below average for several months, low river flows, low groundwater and reservoir levels, very dry soil, reduced crop yields or even crop failure. Its seriousness depends on the degree of the water shortage, size of area affected, and the duration and warmth of the dry period.

During a drought period there is a lack of water, and thus many of the people die; Animals that drink from the rivers or streams can become sick and die; swimmers in affected waters may become ill. The ecology of an area may be affected by the drying of wetlands, with wading birds dying out. Crop production will be lower than usual; trees may die. Wildfires spring up; lack of irrigation can lead to famine and disease.

Drought differs from other natural hazards in several ways. First, since the effects of drought often accumulate slowly over a considerable period of time and may linger for years after, the termination of the event, the onset and end of drought are difficult to determine.

Because of this characteristic, drought is often referred to as a creeping phenomenon. Drought impacts are nonstructural, in contrast to floods, hurricanes, and most other natural Hazards. Its impacts are spread over a larger geographical area than are damages that result from other natural hazards.

Agriculture is often the first sector to be impacted by drought because access to water resources and soil moisture reserves determine crop productivity. Drought in the agricultural sense does not begin with the cessation of rain, but rather when available stored water will support actual evapotranspiration at only a small fraction of the potential evapotranspiration rate (WMO 1992).

The rate of transpiration by a crop depends largely upon the availability of soil water as determined by the root systems of crops. In draught you should realistic in your assessment to the situation and underestimate. It is important to not ignore and to have a plan, act early, review and then plan again and revise the plan with each action as you play your strategy.

Characteristics of Agricultural Drought are:

• Drought can be localized covering a district or a group of districts. On the other hand, it can be widespread covering a few states.
• It builds over a period of time with increased scarcity of water generally due to insufficient or erratic monsoon rains.
• It does not have a well-defined start. It is a creeping phenomenon.
• Area affected by a drought usually takes an elliptic shape instead of a circular coverage.

Ways to save water:

• Replace washers in leaky faucets. One drop a second wastes 2,700 gallons (10,220 liters) of water a year!
• Repair leaky pipes. When no one is running the water in your home, take a reading of the water meter. Wait 30 minutes and then take a second reading. If the meter reading changes, you have a leak.
• Consider replacing an old toilet with a low-volume model that uses less than half the water of the older types.
• Rather than letting the tap run to cool drinking water, fill a jug or pitcher and store drinking water in the refrigerator.
• When watering lawns, water in short sessions so the lawn absorbs the moisture better. Three short sessions of 10 minutes a piece, spaced 30 minutes apart, are preferable to one long 30-minute session.
• Plant grass, ground cover and shrubbery that does not take as much water to survive.

# Writer Dr Arvind Kumar is a President India Water Foundation and Member -Meghalaya State Water Resources Council headed by the CM