Drought has varying effects on the social and economic aspects of a country. Water has become an integral part of society’s survival. So lessening our water resource is really a humongous problem that we would have to brave when faced with drought here. The economy is also powered by water to a certain extent, not only because water is needed for some operations, but also because the workers and employees need water in order to do their jobs well. Water basically is a source of physical strength for humans and thus, it is essential in maintaining their productivity.

Farmlands are the ones that are most affected by drought. The growth and productivity of farms rely heavily on water. The trees and plants which produce much of our food rely on water for growth and development, along with sunlight and soil nutrients. With less water, productivity of farms is slow and that could also affect the prices on the market. Analysing the law of supply and demand, when the supply is less, prices tend to go up. Increased prices are burdensome to the populace due to their limited budget. Especially in times of recession which a lot of countries are going through right now, having an increase in prices is the last thing consumers would want. Farmers would also have a difficult time earning as much profit as before since the rate of production decreases during drought. Some will even incur higher expenses due to some protective measures that have to be taken because of too much heat that might damage their farms. Some farms will even get destroyed due to lack of water and too much heat during drought. This also burdens the farmers to a huge extent. However, some farmers outside the drought-affected area are benefiting much. Consumers most likely divert their attention to unaffected farms whenever drought is there. Unaffected farms maintain low prices of goods and services and that is why consumers are most likely to go to them whenever other farmlands are affected by drought. So for some farmers, a drought occurring in other areas is something they would celebrate for that means more customers and more profit for them.

The environment is heavily dependent on water. It is mostly made up of trees and plants which serve as important natural resources for humans. These trees need water for survival and without it, they are most likely going to die. The environment would then be negatively affected.

So what are some environmental effects of drought?

Whenever droughts occur, especially for a very long period of time, deserts tend to expand as seen here. If you look at deserts, these are arid lands with little to no vegetation. Most likely, they came into existence because of recurring droughts in those areas. When drought occurs in other areas as well, you can see that the deserts are expanding and many more lands are becoming deserts. This phenomenon is what we call as desertification. It is the expansion of deserts due to some factors, drought being the major and common factor among them all.

Forest productivity is also reduced during a period of drought. Take note that we get a lot of our resources from forests including food. We make use of trees as raw materials for generating paper or wood for building infrastructures. So having good forests and ensuring their productivity is valuable to society. However, during drought, forests tend to die. Trees are not able to grow firmly. They are not able to have as much produce as before. They are not able to propagate as much because the essential element which is water is lacking. Water is essential for their growth and development. Without it, they would not be as productive as they should be.

The main idea behind this part of the site is to give full coverage to all major UNCCD events in the region by allowing specific focus though detailed pictorial displays. Through this part of the site we hope that genuine regional focus on each event could be maintained as it happens, thereby raising greater public interest and input in the same. Our first major exhibition will of course be coverage of the Ninth Regional meeting scheduled for Columbia this June. This will be followed by exhibits from COP 6 to be held in Havana focusing exclusive on the activities of delegates of the LAC region