This article is part of a section on [[Resilient WASH systems in drought-prone areas|resilience of WASH systems]].
Droughts occur regularly and should not be seen as one-off occurrences – rather they should be planned for in order to reduce negative effects. Drought Cycle Management (DCM) describes in a general way how to reduce vulnerability (& increase resilience) of populations to drought through proper planning. The aim is also to use funds more effectively: making existing systems more resilient during the normal and alert stages means that less money should have to be spent during the emergency phase. Oxfam for example found that in drought-prone [https://www.iisd.org/pdffaq/2010adapting-to-climate-change/c4d_enhancing_resiliency_kenya.pdf ASAL] areas, development work is increasingly disrupted and/or undermined by the shift to emergency response.
As the diagram shows, the cycle consists of the following four stages