Survival in extreme drought

This is connected to the drought that our country recently experienced. Last March, the farmers in the southern province held a protest march, asking the government for rice. All their crops were wilted, withered and dead due to lack of water amid the extreme heat of the drought. That protest march led to a clash between the protesters and the police.

One protester said, he is a farmer and his livelihood has vanished since his crops were all brown. In fact, he added, there was no more green anywhere because even the water wells have gone dry. So that gave me a scenario of survival. What if you are in the forest and there is that extreme drought that even the leaves of the trees have turned brown, what can you do to survive?

 

Every year in the Philippines it has been getting hotter and dryer. Back home there was a serious drought problem that plagued my island for years. In the early 1900s a farmer decide to do something about it and he planted Norfolk Pine Trees on the mountain ridges and around town. 50 years later there are humongous trees that supply anywhere between 6 to 16 gallons of water a day from collecting water out of the atmosphere. All of that water goes directly into the water shed.

I see places like Nevada and California that can benefit from this but nobody seems to give a damn, and look to others to initiate a movement. In the Philippines, you will not get help from anyone, and if you expect your local government to help, I doubt any will come your way unless you are the son of a politician.

Here's some pictures of Norfolk Pine Trees. They will take a long time to get to this size, but it is a long term goal and you will see a difference in the distant future. I planted 100s of these in the mountains on the weekends. Trust me when I say, from one tree alone there will be hundreds of baby pine trees that will grow at the base of every full grown tree because the seeds drop to the ground. People treat it like a weed because it is all over the place.

 

Drought Survival is mostly about planning ahead for the possibility of water shortages, ideas for conserving water around the house, and sources for gathering rainwater. Collecting rainwater in barrels for use during dry months has been with many cultures as far back as the Ancient Rome. It is one of the best ways to catch some water and store it for future use.

Rain barrels come in many shapes and sizes. If you consider that a typical home has approximately 500 gallons of water runoff from just 1 inch of rain, you can imagine how quickly just one 50 gallon rain barrel will fill. That water can be rationally used during drought.

 

That is a tough one. How can anyone survive without water? I do believe that's why it's so important to stock up or have a big tank like I have seen posted on this site. We can only survive for 3 to 5 days. I did hear about some trees will have water/fluid in them. But is that really enough?

 

I do believe there are some techniques that can improve the soils in a specific part of the land, in this case, drought.If the soiling techniques do not work, then finding another spot, shouldn't be that hard if you have ways of transportation. However,if you don't have any ways of transportation you should consider moving to nearby lands that may be fertile.

 

I agree with you that we should have a stock of water for emergency situations. It's good that we have plenty of 5-gallon plastic bottles where we can stock the water for long since it has a good cap. However, regarding that drought in the province, there is no way they can irrigate the farm and that is their primary concern because even if they have drinking water, they will not have food since their crops have withered and dried. That's why those farmers were seeking help from the government. There was a footage in the news report that lagoons and ponds are all dried and even the river has no flowing water anymore. It was one of the terrible droughts that hit the region.

 

You'll have to learn on how to use water wisely. First you will avoid bathing daily and bath once a week, if possible. You will try to keep your clothes clean to avoid washing them. Another option will be to look for and cook juicy leaves to avoid using a lot of water while cooking them.

 

You may have to apportion the amount of water you have available so that its while last for an extended period of time. It may mean that u may have to use a jug of water to bathe on an infrequent basis, limit the intake of water even if it means bearing the thirst as near to the point of avoiding dehydration as possible, eating fruits with watery content such as coconut and melons if available and limiting cooking eating vegetables that may be eaten raw. These would be necessary measures which could mean the difference between life or death.