Extreme Water Shortage & Drought

Extreme Water Shortage

An emergency water shortage can be caused by prolonged drought, poor water supply management or contamination of a surface water supply source or aquifer. Water conservation is very important during emergency water shortages. Water saved by one user may be enough to protect critical needs of others. A checklist for employers and employees is provided. It lists specific practices at the office to reduce water consumption and conserve this most valuable resource. (Water Conservation Checklist Checklist 13 in Appendix in the Guidebook or on the checklists page of this site)

Drought

A drought is a period of abnormally dry weather that persists long enough to produce serious effects (crop damage, water supply shortages, etc.). The severity of the drought depends upon the degree of moisture deficiency and the duration as well as the size of the affected area. A drought can affect vast territorial regions and large population numbers. This damaging phenomenon is rarely lethal but enormously destructive. Drought can ruin local and regional economies that are agricultural and tourism based. Drought also increases the risk of other hazards such as fire and flash floods.

Devastating impacts on businesses and the overall economy include the following:

Decreased land prices
Loss to industries directly dependent on agricultural production (e.g., machinery and fertilizer manufacturers, food processors, dairies)
Unemployment from drought-related declines in production
Strain on financial institutions (foreclosures, more credit risk, capital shortfalls)
Revenue losses to federal, state, and local governments (from reduced tax base)
Reduced of economic development
Fewer agricultural producers (due to bankruptcies, new occupations)
Rural population loss
Loss to manufacturers and sellers of recreational equipment
Losses related to curtailed activities: hunting, fishing, bird watching, boating, etc.

Costs and losses to agricultural producers are more direct and severe, including annual and perennial crop losses, damage to crop quality, income loss for farmers due to reduced crop yields, reduced productivity of cropland (wind erosion, long-term loss of organic matter, etc.), insect infestation, plant disease, wildlife damage to crops, increased irrigation costs, and the cost of new or supplemental water resource development (wells, dams, pipelines). These should be considered in the Business Disaster Plan. Costs and losses to livestock producers also may be severe, including reduced productivity of rangeland, reduced milk production, forced reduction of foundation stock, closure/limitation of public lands to grazing, high cost/unavailability of water for livestock, cost of new or supplemental water resource development (wells, dams, pipelines), high cost/unavailability of feed for livestock, increased feed transportation costs, high livestock mortality rates, disruptionof reproduction cycles (delayed breeding, more miscarriages), decreased stock weights, increased predation, and range fires.

Loss from timber production from drought is the result of wildland fires, tree disease, insect infestation, impaired productivity of forest land and direct loss of trees, especially young ones.

Loss from fishery production is the result of damage to fish habitat, loss of fish and other aquatic organisms due to decreased flow.