How Drought In Australia Is A Dry Country

Droughts are usually defined as acute water shortage, where there is a shortage of water supply to meet the needs of people due to lack of rainfall.As Australia is a dry country, droughts can go on for an extended period of time. Impacts are very serious and may also cause other natural disasters such as bushfires. The Australian Bureau of Metrology classes droughts into two main classes - serious and severe.

Serious: rainfall is between the lowest five and ten percent for over three months for that period

Severe: in the lowest 5% of all recorded rainfall

Types of droughts include:

Meteorological droughts: an extended period of time of rainfall which is below average. Needs of people and amount of stored water is not taken into account.

During an El Niño event, these winds and ocean currents reverse direction. Australia is subject to cooler ocean currents and many high pressure systems. El Niño thus produces drier conditions and a decreased chance of rain.

Economic Impacts

Failure of crops, resulting in loss of income for farmers and consumers will experience price rises.

Loss of stock due to thirst and starvation

Farmers will have to buy feed for surviving stock with huge amounts of money, often borrowed and import water to keep earning money.

If this is too difficult, farmers may move cities, affecting profitability of rural communities.

Businesses dependent on the agricultural industry will lose

Many states try to “drought-proof” areas by using solutions such as water-recycling, installing water tanks, installing desalinations and placing stricter restrictions on industries. For example, to help prepare for drought better in the future, after the Millennium Drought, the Victorian government built a $3.1 billion 150Gl desalination plant which was completed in 2011. It is able to supply up to a third of Melbourne’s water needs. They also built a 75 GL pipeline, a water grid, and modernised already present systems. The government also provided health services and public work for those affected e.g. Drought Social Response Recovery Plan. The community works together to aid those in need and work together to make sure everyone is safe and has enough water and food to survive. Individuals can assist the situation by making sure they are prepared for the worst before a drought happens and by abiding by the rules of authority. During the flood, individuals and the community should abide by the water restrictions to ensure everyone has enough