Facts about Droughts
- 09
India's worst drought in 45 years during 2015-2016 affected 330 million people and caused approximately 264 farmer suicides in Maharashtra state alone.
- 08
Between 2000 and 2007, the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia experienced severe drought that reduced river flows by 40 percent, threatening water supplies for 40 million people across three states.
- 07
Prolonged drought in the Sahel region of West Africa between 1968 and 1974 caused widespread famine that killed an estimated 100,000 people across countries including Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali.
- 06
Lake Chad has shrunk by approximately 90 percent since the 1960s, shrinking from 25,000 square kilometers to roughly 2,500 square kilometers due to prolonged drought and overuse.
- 05
California's severe drought from 2012 to 2016 depleted groundwater reserves by approximately 20 million acre-feet, the largest four-year depletion recorded in the state's history.
- 04
In 2022, four consecutive failed rainy seasons created the worst drought in 40 years across the Horn of Africa, affecting 36.1 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.
- 03
East Africa's 2011 drought killed approximately 250,000 people across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, making it one of the deadliest humanitarian crises of that decade.
- 02
Australia's Millennium Drought lasted 13 years from 1997 to 2010, reducing water storage in major reservoirs to critically low levels below 30 percent capacity.
- 01
The 1930s Dust Bowl drought across the American Great Plains displaced approximately 2.5 million people between 1930 and 1939.