Australia saw some of its worst-ever drought incidents back in 2002-2003. The country’s bitter romance with droughts actually dates back centuries. From 1899 to 1902, for example, some 240,000 died on a single Queensland station.
Droughts are among this country’s great equalizers, as they affect farmers, homeowners, businessmen, and other individuals across the full spectrum of Australian society. In recent years, there’s a growing number of Aussies who are finding ways to drought-proof their homes, businesses, and farms. They invest in a high-quality, electrical submersible pump and install one in their well to have a water source when drought comes.
The Australian government is also doing everything it can to help Aussie farmers in times of drought. They came up with a response, resilience, and preparedness plan for drought incidents that would ensure readiness for such a natural hazard.
Aside from buying pumps and having preparedness and response plans, here are other mitigation measures to ensure that your farm, business, or home will have no water shortage during a drought or dry spell:
Install water recycling facilities
In times of droughts, water conservation is a top priority. As such, you must make sure to have water recycling facilities (that are within your budget) installed in your property. These include rainwater harvesting facility, water purifier, and other instruments that could treat wastewater and rainwater for re-use in homes, farms, and business establishments.
Some of these facilities are quite expensive but if you consider that droughts are almost inevitable on this side of the world, such facilities are clearly an investment worth having.
Install a water tank
They say that we must make hay while the sun shines. When it comes to drought-proofing a home, farm, or business, this can’t be any truer. One way by which you can prepare for droughts is to install one or several water tanks on your property. The idea is to have as much water stored as possible, especially potable water.
For farms, your water tank may well be a sort of rainwater harvesting facility so you can have a nice supply of water for irrigation and livestock feeding purposes.
Maintain plumbing/water pipes
Much like water conservation through rainwater harvesting and treatment, ensuring that your water pipes and plumbing are properly maintained is a simple way of drought-proofing your property.
You should have a professional plumber perform a periodic inspection, maintenance, and repair of your entire plumbing system.
This is to ensure that leaks and damages are immediately fixed so you won’t end up wasting precious water in times of drought and even during normal circumstances.
Make conscious water conservation efforts
Aside from plumbing maintenance and installation of rainwater harvesting facilities, property owners could help themselves by practicing other sensible water conservation techniques.
These may include using water used in laundry to clean vehicles and farm equipment, doing vehicle wash once a month instead of weekly, taking a bath faster or using pail and dipper instead of a shower, and many other similar efforts.
Planting drought-resistant crops and garden plants
Farms should factor in a drought when choosing crops to plant. While there are few such species, it shouldn’t discourage you from trying. There are drought-tolerant crops such as corn, cassava, cowpea, sweet potato, and the like.
Meanwhile, plants such as cacti are naturally able to thrive in a desert-like environment, so they are perfect for landscape gardens in homes and commercial spaces. With these tips, you should be prepared for damaging droughts that occur in Australia.
