Page 17 - 44-Summer 2015_Final

Photo by Craig D. Allen, courtesy
of U.S. Geological Survey

flash point for conflict between In response, provincial and local
Canada and the United States. governments looked for new ways to access
A drought is not like other water. Having once relied solely on dams,
natural disasters. It does not burst several regions now began recycling sewerage
in to topple power lines, wash away water and offering incentives to homeowners
cars, or incinerate homes. It builds for installing water tanks. Some regions even
slowly and often imperceptibly, constructed desalination plants to make
but causes damage no less seawater suitable for both consumption and
severe or widespread. Drought is irrigation. But residents resisted these efforts. In
a primary cause of disease and Toowoomba, Australia’s second-most populous
death. It leads to inadequate inland city, citizens rejected a referendum to
water supplies, malnutrition, and begin using recycled sewerage water in 2006.
even famine. It creates economic Because no sufficient alternative supply was
devastation and cripples available, the plan was eventually carried out
agriculture. Most worrisome, anyway. In Sydney, the nation’s most populous
UN FAO reports that droughts city, public opposition temporarily halted a
are increasing in intensity and desalination project in 2008, but authorities
duration—trends that are likely ultimately overrode the opposition as water
to continue. Thankfully, there are reserves sank to their lowest levels in half a
some lessons we can learn from century.
what others have experienced. Increased rainfall and new approaches to
treating and using water eventually relieved
Drought Down Under the country from drought by 2012. However,
significant environmental impacts remained.
From 1995 to 2009, the
entire nation of Australia suffered Reports in 2014 indicated that salinity and
acidity remained abnormally high in soil and
through the lengthy “millennium groundwater. More worrisome, the country
drought”; some areas did not appeared headed toward drought yet again as
escape drought conditions until the year drew to an end.
2012 and fears began to surface in
late 2014 that parts of the country Like Australia, California consists of a
were returning to drought yet lengthy coastline and large inland deserts
again. prone to frequent droughts. In 2011, the Pacific
Institute in Oakland predicted that California
The drought was caused by several
consecutive years of insufficient rain throughout would follow a path similar to Australia’s
historically lengthy struggle, even as California
the 1990s, and already recognized as the was just emerging from an earlier drought. So
worst in the nation’s history by 2003. Even as far, this prediction appears right on target.
provincial and local governments responded
with increasingly tight water restrictions, most
cities were left with less than 50 percent of No Rainforest, No Rain
normal water capacity, and water levels in Though it also boasts a lengthy coastline,
Melbourne dams sunk as low as 27 percent of Brazil features geography quite unlike California
capacity by 2009. Decreased access to water and Australia. The majority of its inland territory
severely affected agricultural production, which is filled with lush rainforests that typically enjoy
in turn led to a downturn in the economy. abundant rainfall, which produces an estimated

www.us.tzuchi.org | 17