How Droughts Affect Us

When people hear the words natural disasters,they usually think of hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes - events that are sudden and frightening, that can cause a great deal of devastation, and that make a lasting impression on us. Drought usually isn't the first disaster that comes to mind! That's because drought, unlike a tornado or an earthquake, for example, usually doesn't have a sudden beginning or end. We can see a tornado and feel an earthquake, but we can't see drought. It happens when we don't get as much water as we expect or need over a significant period of time, and it happens so slowly that we only see its effects. And although drought's impacts are serious, they rarely include fatalities or injuries in the United States. For all of these reasons, many people don't realize that drought is a very costly, devastating disaster. In fact, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated that drought costs the United States an average of $6-8 billion dollars every year, making it the costliest natural disaster. Losses from the 2002 drought may be as much as $20-30 billion. To see how drought compares to other natural disasters, check out an NDMC comparison of droughts, hurricanes, and floods.

When drought occurs, it can have many far-reaching impacts. That's because water is an important part of so many of our activities. We need water for everything from human, wildlife, and plant health; to washing dishes, river rafting, and fishing; to growing food, cooling engines, and producing electricity. When we don't have enough water for these activities, there will most often be a negative impact.

We often talk about drought's impacts as either direct or indirect, because drought impacts can cause a chain reaction of events that lead to additional drought impacts. For example, a direct impact of drought may be that a farmer loses his wheat crop. An indirect effect is that the farmer may then not have as much money and can't buy a new tractor, reducing the income of the machinery dealership. If no one can afford to buy machinery, the dealership may eventually have to lay off employees or shut down the business, resulting in even more indirect impacts. This chain reaction of drought impacts is often called the ripple effect.

But drought does not always affect everyone negatively. Well drillers, for example, may be more in demand, and construction companies may have fewer rainy days to slow down their building progress. To prepare for drought, people need to figure out how drought will affect their own particular interests or activities.

Types of Drought Impacts
Drought impacts are often grouped as economic, environmental, and social. When we talk of economic impacts, we mean those impacts of drought that cost people (or businesses) money. For example:

• Farmers may lose money if a drought destroys their crops or stunts the crops' growth, causing lower yields and poor crop quality. If a farmer's water supply is too low, the farmer may have to spend more money on irrigation or to find new water sources, like wells.
• Ranchers may lose livestock, or they might have to spend more money on feed and water for their animals.
• People who work in the timber industry may be affected when trees, especially young trees, die or wildfires destroy stands of timber.
• Businesses that manufacture and sell recreational equipment, like boats and fishing equipment, may not be able to sell some of their goods because drought has dried up lakes and other water sources.
  
• Businesses that depend on agricultural production, like tractor manufacturers and companies that process food, may lose business when drought damages crops or livestock.
  
• Power companies that normally rely on hydroelectric power (electricity that's created from the energy of running water) may have to spend more money on other fuel sources if drought dries up too much of the water supply. The power companies' customers would also have to pay more.
  
• Water companies may have to spend money on new or additional water supplies.
  
• Barges and ships may have difficulty navigating streams, rivers, and canals because of low water levels, which would also affect businesses that depend on water transportation for receiving or sending goods and materials.
  
• People may have to pay more for food.

Drought also causes environmental losses because of forest fires; soil erosion; damage to plants, animals, and their habitat; and air and water quality decline. Sometimes the damage is only temporary, and conditions return to normal when the drought is over. But sometimes drought's impact on the environment can last a long time, or may even become permanent if, for example, an endangered species was lost because of low stream flows. Examples of environmental impacts include:

• Losses or destruction of fish and wildlife habitat
  
• Lack of food and drinking water for wild animals
  
• Increase in disease in wild animals, because of reduced food and water supplies
  
• Migration of wild animals, leading to a loss of wildlife in some (drought-stricken) areas and too many wildlife in areas not affected by drought
  
• Increased stress on endangered species
• Lower water levels in reservoirs, lakes, and ponds
  
• Loss of wetlands
  
• More fires
  
• Wind and water erosion of soils, reduced soil quality

Social impacts of drought include public safety, health, conflicts that arise between people when there isn't enough water to go around, and changes in lifestyle. Many of the impacts that we consider economic and environmental also have social impacts. Examples of social impacts include:

• Mental and physical stress on people (for example, people may experience anxiety or depression about economic losses caused by drought)
  
• Health problems related to low water flows (for example, low water supplies and water pressure make fire fighting more difficult)
  
• Loss of human life (from heat stress and suicides, for example)
  
• Threat to public safety from an increased number of forest and range fires
  
• Reduced incomes
  
• Population migrations (from rural to urban areas)
  
• Fewer recreational activities

All of these impacts must be considered in planning for and responding to drought conditions.

Links
For more information on the impacts of drought, see Impacts of Drought, Economic Impacts, Environmental Impacts, and Social Impacts. To follow drought impacts in the United States and other countries, check out these links: Drought Impacts in the United States, and Climate Information Project