Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects - Disaster Management Center ...

Population and employment also registered the effects of the disaster. About half of the
population of four million lived in the Sahelian zone. As the drought persisted, many people
migrated in search of relief. Some followed their herds into neighboring Cameroon, Niger, and
the Central African Empire, while others settled in urban centers within Chad, particularly the
capital city of N’Djamena. Squatter settlements grew; urban overcrowding and unemployment
increased; additional burdens were placed on limited social services; and political instability
intensified. 3
Bolivia, 1983
As a result of a severe and prolonged drought during 1983 that affected large areas of seven of
Bolivia’s nine departments, an estimated 80 percent of the normal fall harvest of staple crops
was lost. Approximately 35 percent of Bolivia’s total land area was directly affected; 90 percent
of the altiplano, 70 percent of the valleys, and 10 percent of the lowlands. The drought deprived
nearly 1.6 million peasant farmers of their source of income and food supply. The city of Potosi,
with 104,000 inhabitants, was totally without normal sources of water.
A reported food crop deficit of over 1,000,000 metric tons, half of which was potatoes, was
largely attributed to the drought. Severe livestock losses further depleted the meager resources
of the rural population. These losses included over 200,000 cattle, 3,000,000 sheep, and
660,000 llamas and alpacas.
Although small, isolated droughts are not uncommon in the altiplano, this drought was
considered a major disaster because of the large geographical area involved; because the
traditional alternative source of foodstuffs, the eastern lowlands, had been flooded; and because
the transportation structure had been seriously damaged by floods.
The consequences of the drought, for both the people and the economy, were expected to be
far-reaching. Migration to urban areas, a common response to drought in the altiplano,
accelerated noticeably in 1983; increasing demands for goods and services pressured already
overburdened municipalities and added to the large number of urban unemployed. The
shutdown of several industries dependent on agricultural production further aggravated the
unemployment situation and added to Bolivia’s economic problems. The country’s GDP growth
rate for 1983, earlier projected at four percent, was expected to be less than one percent, or
possibly even negative, as a result of the drought and earlier flood.
Total agricultural losses were estimated at U.S. $417.2 million: $277.7 million in crop losses
and $139.5 million in livestock losses. (Please note: Figures are based on a conversion rate
from local currency to U.S. dollars of 400:1. If the official exchange rate of about 200:1 were
used, reported damage would be about double the above.) Lost food crop production, resulting
mainly from drought but also including flood losses, exceeded 1,000,000 metric tons.
Geographical Distribution
Droughts occur in all of the world’s continents. In recent decades the most severe and
devastating to human populations have been in Africa, perhaps giving the impression that
droughts are principally an African problem. In fact devastating droughts have occurred in
virtually all of the major semiarid regions of the world as well as in many zones that are normally
temperate climates with significant annual rainfalls.