Causes of Drought and Its Impact on Life

In recent times, droughts have become more common in annual periods under normal climatic conditions. The condition of the earth that is getting older, coupled with the increasingly complex needs of human life, indirectly causes a high potential for disasters in an area.

Drought is a condition where the availability of water is far below the need to meet the needs of life, agriculture, economic activities and the environment. In Indonesia, drought is one of the disasters that often occurs during the dry season.

Many natural factors such as rainfall and natural conditions of the land, management or changes in land use and inappropriate technology can affect the occurrence of drought. In addition, changes in land use will also disrupt the balance of the ecosystem.

Drought that occurs has an impact on life such as affecting the health of humans, plants and animals. Drought can also cause trees to die and the soil to become barren so that during the rainy season it can cause erosion and flooding.

Meanwhile, disasters due to drought such as food shortages because many plants die, farmers lose their livelihoods, resulting in urbanization and so on.

Causes of Drought

1. Low Rainfall

The first and most common cause of drought in Indonesia is climate change which makes rain less frequent. The low rainfall is caused by low moisture content and cloud production. If there is very little rainfall, the dry season will be longer and drought will hit.

2. Global Warming

The next cause of drought is global warming or what is often called global warming which almost occurs all over the world. The causes of the emergence of Global Warming are very diverse, ranging from vehicle and factory pollution, to the use of various hazardous chemicals.

3. Lack of absorption area

The conversion of green open land used as residential buildings can also affect the condition of water reserves in the soil. When soil capable of absorbing rainwater must be covered with concrete, water cannot seep into the soil. The less water reserves in the soil will have a negative impact in the form of drought.

4. Geographical Location

In addition to the lack of absorption areas, the drought that occurred in Indonesia was also more or less influenced by the geographical location of Indonesia which is right on the equator which is flanked by 2 continents and 2 oceans. Geographically, Indonesia is also in the "monsoon" region which is a natural phenomenon where extreme climate changes often occur due to changes in air pressure from the mainland.

This change creates a “steam jet effect” from the ocean hitting the land with hot air. Heat and wind make many areas that originally had water content dry. This is exacerbated when the dry season arrives.

5. Hydrological Damage

Hydrological damage is damage to the function of the upstream area of ​​the river because reservoirs and irrigation canals are filled with very large amounts of sediment. As a result, the capacity and capacity of water will decrease drastically and this will trigger drought when the dry season arrives.