The Effects of Drought on Civilization - Research Paper Example

 Effects of Drought Natural phenomenon along with being very beautiful and useful for humankind, sometimes become very disastrous and demolishing for them. They show a negative side of nature and indicate some very demolishing aspects of nature, which the humans cannot ignore because of possessing less power. These incidents remind people that they do not have the control over everything and they are very small in front of such natural calamities. However, with strategic and wise planning one can reduce the severity of its effects but cannot save from them completely. Therefore, the areas that often face droughts should remain alert and stimulate their weather experts to continuously analyze weather conditions and give instructions of safety before its occurrence. Drought refers to the deficiency or absence of water in an area, which happens because of the weather conditions and climate (Sanchez, pp. 15-16, 2008). Droughts bring with them severe hazards and its effects will depend upon many factors. Factors include duration of the drought, financial conditions of people, storages of water, tolerance power of people and efficiency of government and other community organizations. If the duration of drought is short, then people will require a short time to recover from its effects but if it is very long then; its effects will also be long lasting and very dangerous. Second factor is financial conditions of people, if drought takes place in a country where people’s standard of living is high and they live a very wealthy life then, they can surely reduce the tendency of its harmful effects. However, in poor areas drought brings a black period, which destroys the lives, property and plants of people, and leave them empty handed with injured hearts. These people can do nothing except waiting for an angel to come and take them out from this disaster. Another factor, which plays a very important role in lessening the effects of drought, is earlier storages of water. If the public of a country were wise enough to store the water in a way that it becomes helpful at the time of drought then the country would not face a very bad situation. But if the effects are spread over an elongated area then even storages would not work in fact people will started fighting with each other to get water. Sometimes, these fights take very dangerous shapes and armies will have to interfere to stop it. However, due to lack of energy even armies would not be able to perform their jobs properly. Lastly, efficiency of government, if government is efficient and really cares for its people then it can rapidly arrange water supply from neighbor countries even if it is very expensive because nothing is more important than human life. If people remain alive, they can generate money but if there are no people who would generate and even use this money. Therefore, government should show efficiency in these situations to save their country from going into dark eras. The effects of droughts can be environmental, social, and economical. The paper will talk about some of the major effects of droughts in the following paragraphs. Let us look at the environmental effects. As we all know that water is the basic need of the living organisms, be it humans, animals or plants. A long lasting absence of water in an area results in desertification of the area causing plants not to grow properly or to fade them away completely. When plants are not in existence, the effects are on animal species as they depend greatly on plants for their nutrition. Due to dearth of water and food, animals die of thirst and hunger. Sea animals die because they cannot survive without water. Wildlife habitats also go missing as forests turn into desserts in droughts. Thirst is a life taker because without food, people can live for weeks but will die in days if they are without water. Human societies suffer greatly because of droughts. Firstly, deficiency of water in human body causes illness and deaths. One of the major impacts on human body is dehydration, which leads to many diseases. Therefore, if no proper facilities are in place at the times of drought, people might go without water and suffer from illness and deaths. As discussed above, drought causes the shortage of plants and animals, which provide food for human beings. Therefore, the shortage of food causes problems for living. Government can import food from neighbor countries on heavy expenses, there are many food items that countries cannot import but large proportions include the foods that can be imported. People can survive on these imports for a long time but what would do for the cleanliness of environment. Obviously, if they import water, they would primarily focus on consumption activities to use it not the cleaning propose. This would cause dirt and pollution, which contributes in increasing births of harmful insects causing diseases for humans, animals, and plants. Again, rich people can go to hospitals but poor ones will suffer from this as well. The use of water is not only important in food, survival and cleanliness but in many other areas as well. For example in case of fire, if there is no water, only fate is devastation of resources, properties, and lives. Other than this, in case of droughts there can be severe political and social disturbance. Due to droughts, there can be ruthless disagreements over the entitlement of water between groups of people, which may lead to disputes based on ethnicity, cast, religion etc. Since the government is responsible to take care of the recourses of country, there can be political clashes based on allegations of improper planning throwing the country or the region in a bad political state. In such cases, all a society could represent is social disorder, poor quality of life, and poverty. It is evident from many examples paper discussed above that poor people have more impacts of drought than rich ones. In droughts, many people migrate to the non-affected areas. However, migration is not very easy, it costs a lot, and it is difficult to adjust in a new area and start your life again. Hunting a suitable place to live and finding new ways to make money might be easy for the rich but poor people live a miserable life. Droughts are a big challenge for the economy of a country. As understood from the points above, the country’s resources have bad effects, leaving the country in need of food and water in the areas affected (Ylvsiker, pp. 15-16, 2003). The government will have either to take from its non-affected areas or import from other countries, costing a lot. Many labor and transportation costs will occur and still there will be more people to be fed than the food and water available. In this case, the quality of the crops foods is affected, as there is a rush of providing food and water to the areas affected. Diseases are one of the major issues that the country will have to look at (Gill, pp. 51-52, 2001). The health costs will increase and the costs of more space required for patients in terms of room or camps will incur. If the country is encouraging migration to the non-affected areas, then arrangement for new places for the people to live will an issue. Government has to be patient and encouraging in this case as, if it shows hopelessness then people would start going into depression even if there were hope. Drought is the enemy of agriculture. Therefore, the country has less to offer for export but much more to demand. The country will see reduced or lost income from seafood, dairy animals, and meat. People’s purchasing power will be affect badly because of inflation. Many businesses in the areas affected as well as the non-affected areas will have to close down because of the situation. People will lose their jobs. Providing education to the people from the affected areas will be a problem because in such situation where such unrest is taking place educational institutions will stop working. Tourism industry plays an important role in a country’s economy. In case of drought, there is a big threat to the tourism industry as people would not like to visit the affected areas and might not like to visit even the non-affected areas because of their high prices and bad economic condition (Olson, pp. 5-24, 2006). Due to lack of water, the country will face problems with the hydroelectric power generation. The potential investors from outside the country will lose interest to invest in the country. Country would go back to its inception period when the basic aim of country was to survive not to thrive, as it would focus on non-developmental projects. People possessing fishery businesses lose a lot during drought, as fishes cannot survive without water. Moreover, wind and water erosion of soils also take place. It also causes unemployment because production levels go down due to absence of water, which is a basic raw material for almost all the products. Organizations start downsizing causing people to leave their jobs without their mistakes (Maundar, pp. 172-173, 1986). After the drought, when effects are losing their ardency and people are recovering, effective resource allocation is very important. As all the assets and properties might have stopped working, people might have died; organizations might have changed their structures of working and remaining people might be less energetic to work because of diseases and other social impacts. Government should allocate resources in a way that it neglects the disparity between poor and rich people. As many people suffer from mental disturbances and acquire psychological problems, these problems become very harmful if they have happened to the earning member of the family. Government and other organizations should arrange training sessions to get these people back to their previous position to save their families from hunger even after drought is over. Government should distribute funds for the drought victims and it should make sure that these funds go in right hands so that people do not get further frustrated and go against their own country. As the paper has discussed above that weather experts should remain alert when there is an apprehension of drought and inform people at least one or two months before so that they can arrange beforehand for their safety. Droughts leave people having differences among themselves, which is a root of downfall of any country. If people remain united, they can overcome any difficulty but if they start hating each other, conditions will go their opposition. Therefore, government should not involve in any activity, which creates differences among people. References Gill, R. B. (2001). The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death. UNM Press. Maundar, W. J. (1986). The Uncertainty Business: Risks and Opportunities in Weather and Climate. Taylor & Francis. Olson, N. (2006). Droughts. Capstone Press. Sánchez, J. M. (2008). Droughts: Causes, Effects and Predictions. Nova Science Publishers. Ylvisker, A. (2003). Droughts. Capstone Press. Read More