Persistent droughts and the absence of proper water infrastructure have made the communities living in the Aït Baamrane region of Morocco highly vulnerable. A solution to address the complex challenges of water scarcity, sustainable development and marginalization in the region can be found in the Anti-Atlas Mountains, where clouds are transformed into fog. Dar Si Hmad, a local non-governmental organization, has worked with several partners to install one of the biggest fog water collection systems in the world in Mount Boutmezguida.

Though droughts are natural events, there is an increasing understanding of how humans have amplified their severity and worsened their effects on both the environment and human populations. Humans have altered both meteorological droughts through human-induced climate change and hydrological droughts through management of water movement and processes within a landscape, such as by diverting rivers or changing land use. In the Anthropocene (the ongoing period in which humans are the dominant influence on climate and the environment), droughts are closely entwined with human actions, cultures and responses.

This series of videos explains the effects of drought all around the world through the presentation of case studies.

They are the result of the work of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) in partnership with GRID-Arendal, the University of Southampton and the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).

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