Drought does mean less water availability, but this can cause a myriad of other problems. For instance, without a consistent water supply, crops can fail which leads to not only food insecurity, but it intensifies poverty. Women and children will be more impacted by drought than men, because they generally tend to agricultural activities and will need to travel further to get to water in the case of a drought. Ethnic tensions can escalate into wars over water resources, and hydropower can be cut dramatically, leading to greater and greater economic losses.
Drought can even affect the making of cement, which can result in a poor quality if not done properly. Cement is used in the construction of most everything! So if a community has a weak infrastructure, failing crops, stressed and depleted caretakers (women), and economic and civil instability, how is that community supposed to survive at all? I realised more and more how integrating the drought study into Akvopedia was crucial, not only for [http://www.iisd.org/casl/asalprojectdetails/asal.htm arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs)], but most all areas experiencing even temporary drought. As these areas were likely to be the least prepared. With so many factors being affected by drought, I noticed that'''efficiency''' and water technology '''appropriateness''' (for a specific geography and climate of a region) became extremely important throughout the CARE study.
Much of the document took each water technology, from siting to construction, and illustrated how to make it more efficient and harmonious with the realities and patterns of drought. For instance, if a community’s primary water source is through [[riverbed infiltration galleries]], and the drought makes the river dry up, then reliance on the shorter (and often more intense) rainfall events must be maximized. Two smart solutions to address this are: increase the porosity of your infiltration system (to reduce rainfall runoff) and create a greater catchment area or dam system to accommodate more erratic, “all at once” rainfall events.
