1. What is drought and how is it related to water scarcity?

Drought and water scarcity are two interrelated phenomena in an important way. The drought of an area is a temporary situation of water scarcity, that is, the water becomes insufficient for a time to satisfy the needs of humans, plants and animals that live in said environment. When drought strikes, the water authorities force consumption to be reduced and apply rationing to preserve this vital liquid.

The World Meteorological Organization defines drought as “a period of abnormally dry weather conditions long enough for lack of precipitation to cause severe hydrological imbalance”.

Projection of droughts over time

A report by the UN specialized body indicates that all the facts and figures point to an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of their impacts, which not only affect societies but also the ecological systems of which The survival of life depends on it, of all species, including ours.

The climate change, an increasingly potent driver of migration, “could force 216 million people across six world regions to move within their countries by 2050. Hotspots of internal climate migration could emerge as early as 2030 and continue to spread and intensify by 2050. The report also finds that immediate and concerted action to reduce global emissions, and support green, inclusive, and resilient development, could reduce the scale of climate migration by as much as 80 percent”. The World Bank’s.

If the situation does not change, we are heading towards a world where fresh water and rich and productive soil will be increasingly scarce, as a consequence of the extension of the periods of drought.

Despite the above, there is a hopeful fact, and that is that droughts are predictable and occur slowly and cyclically. This means that we can anticipate them to prevent them from becoming an irreversible disaster.