Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
drought. If the social organization and technology
cannot cope with a drought disaster, then the conse-
quences to the nation may be very large indeed.
Whereas droughts at the turn of the century had to be
borne by individuals, and had little effect outside the
region, society today in the United States is structured
so that the failure of existing technology to minimize a
drought will severely disrupt the social and economic
fabric of that nation. A ripple effect will also permeate
its way into the international community, because
many Third World countries are reliant upon the Great
Plains breadbasket to make up shortfalls should their
own food production fail. This international effect will
only be exacerbated if droughts occur worldwide at
the same time. Until the 1990s, this appeared unlikely
because the timing of drought on the Great Plains
was out of sequence with that in other continents.
However, since the early 1990s, droughts have
occurred globally at the same time. This is sobering
considering the international community's inability to
respond to more than one major drought at a time.
broken. By November of 1976, most of the country had
returned to normal rainfall conditions.
The drought was severe, not because of a lack of
rain, but because of increased competition for available
water supplies that in some parts of the country had
traditionally been low. Since the Industrial Revolution,
public priority ensured water supplies to cities and
industry. Commercial water projects were common
and, where they were not available, councils were
empowered to supply water. The
Water Act
of 1945
encouraged amalgamation of local authorities and
nationalization of private companies. A severe drought
in 1959 resulted in the
Water Resources Act
of 1963;
this led to the establishment of river authorities to
administer national water resources, and a Water
Resources Board to act in the national interest. By
1973 there were still 180 private companies supplying
water, and through the
Water Act
of 1973, ten regional
water authorities were set up to take control of all
matters relating to water resources. In addition, a
centralized planning unit and research center were set
up. It would appear that the United Kingdom should
have been well-prepared for the drought; but, despite
this legislation, per capita consumption of water had
increased as standards of living increased. Water mains
had been extended into rural, as well as suburban
areas, so that agriculture was reliant upon mains supply
for irrigation and supplementary watering.
As the drought heightened in June of 1976, regional
water authorities complained that their legal responses
were either too weak or too extreme. Either they could
ban non-essential uses of water such as lawn watering
by ordinary citizens, or they could overreact and cut off
domestic water supplies and supply water from street
hydrants. They had no control whatsoever over indus-
trial or agricultural usage. Except in south Wales,
industry at no time had water usage drastically
curtailed. On the other hand, water mains in many
places were shut down, with special wardens appointed
to open water mains when a fire broke out. In August,
the national government gave the water authorities
more powers through the
Drought Act
. The authorities
were free to respond to local conditions as they saw
fit. Publicity campaigns managed to get domestic
consumers, who were collectively the largest water
users, to decrease consumption by 25 per cent.
Because there were virtually no water meters in the
United Kingdom, it was not possible to reduce
consumption by imposing a limit on the volume of
Societies that don't expect drought:
the
United Kingdom
(Whittow, 1980; Morren, 1983; Young, 1983)
The United Kingdom is not usually associated with
drought; however, the south and south-east sections of
England have annual rainfalls of less than 500 mm. In
1976 England was subjected to 16 months of drought,
the worst recorded in its history. For the previous five
years, conditions had become drier as the rain-bearing,
low-pressure cells, which usually tracked across
Scotland and Norway, shifted northward into the
Arctic. The low-pressure cells were replaced with
unusually persistent high-pressure cells that often
blocked over the British Isles, and directed the north-
ward shift of the lows. By the summer of 1976, poor
rainfalls affected many farmers and temperatures
uncharacteristically soared over 30°C. Domestic water
supplies were hard hit as wells dried up. By the end of
July, water tankers were carrying water to towns
throughout the United Kingdom, and water restrictions
were brought into force. In some cases, municipal
water supplies were simply turned off to conserve
water. In mid-August, at the height of the drought, the
Thames River ceased to flow above tide limits. By
September, there were calls for national programs
to mitigate the worsening situation. When the govern-
ment finally shifted into action, the drought had
