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How long can a human survive in a drought?

The survival period for someone in a drought is really dependent upon their access to drinking water and, to some extent, food. Drought is the word we use to describe periods of abnormally low rainfall, as opposed to places which receive little rainfall as a normal part of weather patterns. Currently, several parts of the world are experiencing drought. The state of California, in the United States, is experiencing a drought, but because this is a developed area with the ability to drill for water and import drinking water from other locations, the people here are not in as immediate danger as they might be otherwise. The major downside to the California drought is that there is a deficit in the amount of water available for agriculture-- in other words, food production in California is at risk. 


As long as a person in a drought area has access to drinking water, they can survive indefinitely regardless of the drought. Without access to drinking water, a person will begin to experience dehydration. Symptoms of dehydration include sleepiness, thirst, decreased urine output, headache, dizziness, dry skin, and low blood pressure. Symptoms will get worse the longer someone goes without adequate hydration, and most doctors agree that if someone goes more than three days without water, they will die. There have been some reports of emergency situations where people have survived for more than a week without water, but this would still be severely detrimental to health.

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