Mauritania and Burkina Faso. A fund of about £20,000 was distributed to the drought-hit countries. History Throughout history, humans have usually viewed droughts as "disasters" due to the impact on food availability and the rest of society. Humans have often tried to explain droughts as either a natural disaster, caused by humans, or the result of supernatural forces. It is among the earliest documented climatic events, present in the Epic of Gilgamesh and tied to the Biblical story of Joseph's arrival in and the later Exodus from ancient Egypt. Hunter-gatherer migrations in 9,500 BC Chile have been linked to the phenomenon, as has the exodus of early humans out of Africa and into the rest of the world around 135,000 years ago. Rituals exist to prevent or avert drought, rainmaking could go from dances to scapegoating to human sacrifices. Nowadays, those ancient practices are for the most part relegated to folklore and replaced by more rational water management. Historical droughts include: 1540 Central Europe, said to be the “worst drought of the millennium” with eleven months without rain and temperatures of 5–7 °C above the average of the 20th century 1900 India killing between 250,000 and 3.25 million. 1921–22 Soviet Union in which over 5 million perished from starvation due to drought. 1928–30 Northwest China resulting in over 3 million deaths by famine. 1936 and 1941 Sichuan Province China resulting in 5 million and 2.5 million deaths respectively. See also References Works cited External links GIDMaPS Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System, University of California, Irvine Water scarcity from FAO Water (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Global Real-Time Drought Media Monitoring Meteorological phenomena Civil defense Climate variability and change Hydrology Water and the environment Weather hazards Articles containing video clips Natural disasters