Irrigation Extra: The Impacts of Drought

“Rather than say to your customers, ‘Hey, here’s an irrigation system,’ say ‘This is an efficient irrigation system and here’s why we should use it,’” says Greg Natvig, marketing manager of Rain Bird, Tucson, Ariz. “Everybody – contractors, manufacturers, designers, users – everybody is responsible for water conservation.”
       
Drought is a big contributor to water shortages and can necessitate the imposition of water-use restrictions. According to the Drought Impact Reporter Web site (www.droughtreporter.unl.edu) evidence suggests that the effects of drought are increasing in magnitude and complexity each year and that drought management requires timely, comprehensive information.
       
“Regardless of where you are or what part of the country you live in, the drought forecast shifts around the country periodically,” says Chris Wright, regional sales manager for the Walla Walla Sprinkler Co., Walla Walla, Wash.
       
The National Drought Mitigation Center was established in 1995 to draw awareness to the impacts of water shortages caused by drought. The organization’s Drought Impact Reporter uses news reports collected from more than 5,000 online media sources, as well as reports submitted by private citizens, government officials and other organizations, to present geographic coverage of the impact of these water shortages, all of which affect the use of water for landscaping and irrigation purposes.
       
According to the NDMC Drought Impact Reporter, the states most affected by drought in the past year include Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Florida, Montana, Illinois, Louisiana, North Dakota and Georgia. These states reported anywhere from 12 to 115 impacts on their water supplies as a result of drought.
           
“As urban development and population growth increase, efficient irrigation will become a bigger issue,” Wright says. “The demand on water supply will eventually be as great a factor as the drought forecast.”