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There is no simple answer to this question. Dictionaries and glossaries tell us that a drought is a long period of dry weather when there is much less rainfall than average, but this is rather vague.

Drought is a relative term and rainfall-related activity is more important than the precise amount of rain that has fallen. Thus, there may be a shortage of rain during the growing season of a particular crop, something known as agricultural drought, or a shortage during the winter run-off and percolation season that affects the supply of water for domestic and industrial use, something known as hydrological drought. When a water shortage affects people and their lives in respect of the supply and demand of economic goods or resources, we speak of a socio-economic drought. The terms 'absolute drought’, 'partial drought’ and 'dry spell’ are not much used nowadays.

 

 

Since the late 1960s, there have been serious drought problems in the Sahel, the savannah region to the south of the Sahara Desert; and similar problems have occurred in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. In these regions, there has been since time immemorial a pattern of fat years followed by lean years. Since the late 1960s, however, there have been many years of lower-than-average rainfall.

In the Sahel, there is normally sufficient rain (250-500 mm per year) to ensure the growth of grass and shrubs. Thus, there is food for the sheep and goats which belong to the nomads. Times were good in the 1950s and early 1960s, with rainfall above average. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, there was prolonged drought, with rainfall more than 15% below average in many years and more than 30% below average in some. The rains did not necessarily fail in the sense of there being no rain at all. The rains were simply less extensive and/or less intense than normal.

For centuries, nomads have moved their animals north-south with the seasons and adapted to the erratic behaviour of the rains. In the 20th century, however, the life expectancy of humans in sub-Saharan Africa increased significantly and populations grew accordingly. When drought came, the nomads could not move to areas blessed with rain, for these areas were already populated. The sheep of the unfortunate nomads then cropped the grass more closely than would otherwise have been the case and their goats ate what vegetation they could find, including the barks of shrubs. The goat thus turned from best friend to worst enemy.

Because of the overgrazing, the desert encroached. What started as a problem which the nomads of the Sahel had probably faced many times over the centuries turned into a disaster requiring remedial action from governments and relief agencies. And the problem was not confined to the Sahel. In Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and India, deserts have expanded much more because of overgrazing than for any climatic reasons. Indeed, the Thar Desert is now almost at the doors of Delhi.

The USA has had its fair share of drought problems. In the 1930s, for example, a sequence of droughts caused the central plains to become a 'dust bowl’; and in the 1970s California was badly afflicted by drought, with 1977 the driest year on record. There was a serious loss of crops and the drought was exacerbated by fires which destroyed brush and standing timber. The level of Lake Shasta dropped many metres, leaving house-boats stranded on its shores.

The United Kingdom has also had its share of drought problems in recent decades, with the worst drought since rainfall records began (in 1727) occurring in 1975 and 1976. In the period May 1975 to August 1976, rainfall amounts were only 40-60% of average south-east of a line from the Severn to the Humber and only 60-80% over Wales, northern England and eastern Scotland. The summer of 1976 was so dry and hot over England and Wales that the normally green countryside turned brown.

So serious was the drought in South Wales that many people had their water shut off for 17 hours a day in August 1976. “Soon empty – soon fill” was a problem in this region. Most of the water that was supplied to the conurbations came from reservoirs in the hills of South Wales (as it still does). Industrial and domestic consumption was such that these reservoirs soon emptied. Rainfall in South Wales is normally such that the reservoirs fill up again quickly, but in the spring and summer of 1976 the rains did not come, so drastic measures had to be taken to conserve what water there was.

In southern England in 1976, there were hosepipe bans in many areas but there was sufficient water in the underground aquifers for cuts in domestic supplies to be avoided. Nevertheless, a Drought Act was passed on 6 August 1976, giving local authorities far-reaching powers to control the use of water. A Minister of Drought was appointed on 24 August and the rains returned four days later!