ABSTRACT
World-wide, drought is a major hazard. Nearly 1.5 billion people were affected by it in the past thirty years, at least as recorded in the major databases of the CRED and USAID (IFRCRCS 1994). Drought is a pervasive natural hazard. All regions of the world and all societies experience climatic variations that include shortages of water. Water is essential to all economies, notwithstanding wide variations in its use. And climate change probably presents a greater threat to economies and development through the impacts on drought than through the marginal trends in average temperatures and precipitation.
