Various countries have experienced unprecedented droughts over the past decade or two. These are not the usual every-few-years droughts that we are talking about, but droughts that have been far harsher and have lasted for far longer than normal.

Various regions of Africa, most of which is a water-scarce continent anyway, have experienced major and prolonged droughts that have devastated countries, causing famine, illness and death. Last year one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded crippled countries from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe and left more than 36 million people facing hunger across southern and eastern Africa.

Ethiopia was dealt a double blow, from a change to the rainy seasons that have been linked to long-term climate change and from El Niño, which potentially led the country to one of the worst droughts in decades. Zimbabwe, once the region’s bread basket, was one of the worst hit countries, and South Africa was not left unscathed – various regions are still struggling with devastating drought and have recently instituted water rationing after water restrictions and a lack of rain failed to help.

Australia’s “Millennium” drought commenced in 1995 and continued until late 2009. Reservoir levels fell sharply and a number of cities, including Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, built desalination plants in an effort to partially drought-proof themselves; other regions followed up on grey water recycling projects, and federal government furnished $4.5 billion in assistance to small businesses and drought-affected farmers.

Syria suffered its worst drought and crop failure in recorded history between 2006 and 2011; parts of south-eastern Brazil, including Belo Horizonte, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro experienced the worst drought in 84 years; California, China and Spain also saw devastating droughts, and Northern India’s groundwater loss can be seen from space.

Unfortunately things are set to get worse over the next few decades as larger populations and growing economies demand more water, and climate change reduces the available water supply.

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