It is is one of the wettest places on Earth. With an average annual rainfall of 11 metres, the town of Cherrapunji in north-east India is 15 times as wet as London. That might not seem shocking, except that Cherrapunji is also a desert. What’s more, it has been suffering something of a drought.
How can a place be both wet and a desert? Cherrapunji is bombarded with almost continuous torrential rain – but only for six months a year, usually April to September. Come October the monsoon winds change direction, and little rain falls again until the following April. Severe water shortages ensue, and the inhabitants often have to trek for days to find any drinking water.
But first, the rains. Cherrapunji gets hit with so much water because of some fortuitous positioning. High pressure over the Indian Ocean and low pressure over continental Asia combine to pull in moist air from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. At 1370 metres above sea level, Cherrapunji’s elevation is another factor. As warm, moist air hits the land it rises and cools. The higher it climbs, the cooler it gets, and the more likely it is to condense into rain.
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So where does all the water go when October comes? You might imagine such a wet place to have a lush, green landscape, but Cherrapunji is nearly barren. The heavy rains wash away the topsoil, making it hard for vegetation to grow. What little plant life once survived has since been chopped down. Without soil and vegetation there is nothing to retain the rainwater. Dig a bit deeper and there’s another problem. Huge deposits of limestone lurk beneath Cherrapunji’s surface, so any water that doesn’t run off into the lush valleys below is sucked down into the earth. Either way, the water vanishes.
This year, Cherrapunji is experiencing its driest year ever. Approximately 9 metres of rain have fallen, 20 per cent less than usual. Apparently Mumbai has stolen Cherrapunji’s rain – 94 centimetres poured down on the city on 26 July, the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in India in a single day. It seems that the monsoon has deviated from its usual course this year, some believe as a result of the tsunami.
The people of Cherrapunji have been suffering the effects of the drought. Infants have developed fevers and respiratory infections, and doctors blame the dry weather. The town needs to find ways to store water from the wet season to use during the dry – to make life a little easier for those living in an oxymoron.
