Drought in Australia: Impacts, Causes, and Management

This article discusses the impacts, causes, and management strategies of the drought in Australia. It explores the severe conditions, decreased rainfall, and economic losses. It also highlights the need for preventive measures and relief programs to cope with drought.

Running head: DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA
DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA
Name of the Student
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Author Note

Introduction:
Droughts are one of the common disasters that affect the Australian continent
frequently. The recent years have seen more events of the drought and the year of 2018 has
experienced events of decreased rainfall and water deficiency in the region thereby increasing
the disastrous effects of the droughts. The Australian continent has experienced severe
weather events and the outcomes are events such as droughts, floods and storms. The report
will look into the drought events of 2018 that affected the eastern part of Australia severely.
The report will identify the location outlined with a map and evaluate the impacts of the
drought.
Discussion:
The Drought event of 2018 had taken place almost throughout the year and ‘The
Guardian’ reported that the state of New South Wales NSW had declared 100% drought and
farmers were worried about the late compensation and relief package. The drought had
affected several regions of the Eastern and Southern Australia complemented through the
intense dry weather and less than average annual rainfall in the region. The
“NSW declared 100% in drought as farmers fear relief package too late”
The Guardian, one of the leading dailies of Australia had reported that the entire state
of NSW has been impacted by drought. The reports reveal that the region experienced drier
than expected June and July leading to crop failures across the region with diminishing
livestock feed. The report from the Guardian also states that the NSW department of primary
industries had reported that the around 61% of the NSW were reportedly under intense
drought like situations while 39% has been drought affected severely. The NSW primary
industries minister Niall Blair had stated that it was a tough situation to handle and that the
entire state is now affected by the condition of drought in the region.

The drought has affected all sections of the community by affecting the primary
industries. The producers have been affected with great intensity and are left with the difficult
decisions regarding cultivation of crops. The report also outlines that the government has
decided to reimburse the farmers through a 190 dollar relief package and that these aspects
were of immense use to deliver a compensation to the people. The government amidst strong
opposition had however argued that they would not stop emphasizing in cutting down
emission, since the impacts of climate change can help reduce the impact of such extreme
events. However this had a mixed reaction among the people. The drought had occurred due
to the conditions of extreme dryness over the past few months and less than average rainfall
in the regions had transformed the region into being drier than normal conditions.
Location of the Natural Disaster
The conditions of drought had affected the regions of NSW and most of eastern
Australia. These regions had been affected greatly and the rainfall until September had been
reported to be the lowest in the last twenty years. The map derived from the Department of
Agriculture and Water Resources, Government of Australia identifies the affected areas that
recorded less than average rainfall in the region. The data from the ABARES also reports that
the rainfall deficiencies were smaller compared to previous records of depth. The rainfall
recorded shows pattern that is first in twenty years of drought conditions in Australia. The
around 49% of the agricultural land had been experiencing extreme drought conditions which
is lower than the 2002 to 2003 drought conditions.
The major causes of the drought in the New South Wales and the eastern parts of the country
is due to the decreased rainfall
over the months from January
to September. The most
important factor that had led to
Image 1: Location of Droughts Source:
Bom.gov.au (2019)

the drought conditions is the lesser than normal rainfall in the region in over the months with
a dry start of the year in other parts of the country. The report from the Bureau of
Meteorology had identified that rainfall deficiency were one of the main reasons for the cause
of droughts in the region of New South Wales in the country. The rainfall records of
Bureau of Meteorology had found that the NSW had experienced the worst rainfall record
and was the third lowest when compared through all available data since the 1900s. The last
fourteen months in the New South Wales had experienced severe deficiencies in the rainfall
and were lowest in historical records. This insufficient rainfall was the major reason for
drought like conditions in the country. Along with the major aspect of the critics have
claimed that the changing climate has resulted in such extreme weather conditions leading to
such drastic impacts.
The impact of the drought have been drastic affecting not only humans, but also wildlife
mostly the castles and livestock industries apart from the major sectors of primary industries.
The farming and agriculture had ben affected extremely with conditions that led to crop
failures leading to huge economic losses. The report on drought statistics denote that the it
can have a long term impact in the mental and physical health of individuals leading to
traumatic experiences and post traumatic disorders. The drought affected rural communities
are likely to experience mental health issues and physical health deterioration. There are also
increased chances that suicidal tendencies can be increased owing such cases of disastrous
impacts.
Disturbances and disruption of amenities mostly water services are the most common issues
that are followed during conditions of drought. The acute scarcity of droughts led to the
scarcity of water in the regions of Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. The pressure on the
demand of water supplies and its acute shortage create an issue that is a result of the disaster.

The most detrimental impact of water shortage is felt by the livestock and cattle of the
Australian rural communities are left to extreme deprivation of water one of the fundamental
ethos of life. The crisis of the water is also projected to increase with time with severe
conditions of drought in the near future. The ecosystem and the economy is also deeply
impacted from the drought like conditions. The drought had affected the lives of thousands of
people by destroying the primary activities and all stakeholders. The droughts have reduced
the economic valour due to instances of crop failure and cattle deaths. These have been one
of the major impacts of drought in the continent.
Prevention of drought can not be done, it is better to understand that management of disaster
can mitigate and reduce the impact of the drought through adopting preventive measures and
strategies to counter the impacts that are brought about by the drought conditions. The
arresting of the climate change can manage the future events of droughts but it can not be
stated that complete mitigation of the drought conditions is possible. The deficiency in the
rainfall conditions can not be artificially managed or addressed and would require stressing
on preventing environmental degradation and resource utilisation. This can happen only when
the optimisation of the resources based on the depicted deficiency and projected disaster
events would be done. The management of the resources would also allow for reduction of
the impact of the drought conditions in the regions that are worstly affected. Finally it can be
concluded that natural disasters such as droughts are extreme events and are natural
occurrences which can not be addressed through human intervention. However the impact on
resources, life and property can be reduced through adequate management systems and relief
programs to cope with such conditions of drought. The drought in Australia has been a
common phenomenon and a rising crisis. The future can be drier and less wet than normal
thereby leading to more frequent occurrences of drought like situations. Thus it is important

that addressal systems are kept handy and prepared to avoid the adverse impacts during such
occurrences.

Bibliography:
Agriculture.gov.au. (2019). ABARES Analysis of 2018 drought. Retrieved
from
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/insights/2018-
drought-analysis#the-current-drought-is-severe-in-some-regions-
but-covers-a-smaller-area-than-previous-events
Bom.gov.au (2019). Monthly Drought Statement. [online] Bom.gov.au.
Available at:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/#tabs=Drought [Accessed
9 Apr. 2019].
Climatecouncil.org.au. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/CC_MVSA0146-Fact-Sheet-Drought_V2-FA_High-
Res_Single-Pages.pdf
The Guardian (2019). NSW declared 100% in drought as farmers fear
relief package ‘too late’. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/08/nsw-
declared-100-in-drought-as-farmers-fear-relief-package-too-late
[Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].