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Drought calamities and insufficient devised strategies
By Hukam Khan

If rains are short in the coming season, the drought situation will become more complex and fatal. It is essential to expedite relief assistance on an emergency basis, meeting the required criteria of the devastated region Pakistan has been passing through an extremely dry weather spell for the last four years. Consequently, some parts of NWFP, south east Punjab, five districts, Dadu, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Mirpur Khas and Thata in Sindh and Quetta, Pashin, Qilla Abdullah, Qilla Saifullah, Chaghi, Kharan, Awaran, Gawadar, Lasbella, Kohlu, Dera Bughti, Kachi, Naseerabad, Ziarat, Khuzdar, Qalat, Mastung, Panjghur and Loralai districts in Balochistan provinces were declared drought-prone by their respective provincial governments. The dry spell has taken its toll on livelihood patterns, drying up of the irrigation and potable water resources, depletion of the rangelands and agriculture, and devastation of economic activities as a whole, and on the poor and marginalised sections in particular. According to the statistics released by the Relief Commissionerate, Government of Balochistan, 19,73,169 acres fertile agriculture land has become barren and 79,17,000 livestock were lost during the dry spell of the last four years. Besides this 21,71,000 people either migrated to other fertile parts of the country, where they could sustain their livelihood patterns or their earning activities were affected severely by the prevailing drought calamities.

In the wake of this predicament, the Government of Pakistan launched a relief programme for the drought-stricken population particularly in Balochistan and Sindh provinces, respectively; so that the populace could be stopped from migrating to other parts and could be placed in the normal stream of life to resume routine activities. Some long and short-term relief assistance activities were started by the Government of Balochistan, UN agencies and NGOs, while international community too contributed a lot to relieve the suffering of the affected masses. Noteworthy among them are the Governments of Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emirates, which donated life-saving drugs for human beings and livestock sector and other supplies which form inseparable components in restoring normal daily life. Following are the humanitarian aid steps taken so far:

A package of 119.392m ton daily consumable food stuffs has been distributed among the affectees; 3.5m ruminants have been vaccinated in 192 free mobile camps; 3,79,900 hay blocks distributed in livestock sector; 40,000 metric tons and 10,000 metric tons wheat has been distributed where as 15,000 metric tons wheat will also be distributed very soon under the special relief packages announced by the President of Pakistan and Governor of Balochistan.

Most of the water sources, tube wells, hand pumps, wells, springs and karezes etc have been drying up and the water table is going down day by day, because of lack of recharge. In the wake of rains, Public Health Engineering and Irrigation and Power Departments have been making hectic efforts to compensate the acute water shortage for irrigation and drinking purposes in the region. Different kinds of water supply schemes like 28 tube wells, 50 hand pumps and borings have either been completed or are passing through various stages of completion, and out of 100 karezes some are being reactivated and the remaining will be reactivated in the near future in various districts throughout the province.

Along with these rehabilitation measures, special attention is also paid to the communication/infrastructure development in order to make access easier and relief operations prompt and efficient to the remote and far flung areas of the province. The completion of seven farms to market roads (work is in progress) and 17 similar facility channels have already been completed and now under use for public transportation and relief aid operations. This will make different trading activities accessible to the common man, safely and quickly--not only inside the country but also to the international trade market.

Balochistan is rich in different kinds of agriculture/horticulture products, especially in different varieties of high-quality fruits, which is one of the main sources of income in the area. Now these fruits are easily transported from farm to the market. An emergency credit relief assistance scheme was initiated by the Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan for the agriculture/horticulture related community to make some arrangements to look after either their crops/fruits (if any) or to initiate business on small-scale basis to be able to sustain daily livelihood. Under this scheme Rs4,000 per farmer/horticulturist has been provided and 2,427 beneficiaries have benefited. Waiver in land tax (any kind of land related tax), provision of electricity on fixed subsidised rates are other type of assistance rendered by the central government for the said community.

Likewise, the Government of Japan, too, handed over consignments of various humanitarian aid supplies (cargo trucks, being under use for transportation of relief items as and when demanded by the concerned nazim/district co-ordination officer, ambulances, being used in the charge of medical superintendent/district health officer, tractors, for multiple use and in the control of nazim/district co-ordination officer of their respective districts, veterinary mobile unit being used mostly in vaccination campaigns by the livestock department, vaccines of different kinds injected to ruminants by live stock department, diesel generator being used in the areas where there is no electric power, well servicing machine being used by the public health engineering department, medical equipment of various types for diagnosing and treatment of diseases and now operational in various hospitals in the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.

Recently, the Government of Oman has donated 40 power-producing generators, which will be distributed in Gawadar valley on the demands from nazims/district co-ordination officers of the respective districts. These could be used for domestic utilisation and supplying water to the people of the communities Despite all these steps taken, the situation cannot be termed satisfactory and under control. If rains are short in the coming season, the drought situation will become more complex and fatal. It is essential to expedite relief assistance on an emergency basis, meeting the required criteria of the devastated region. Prompt and efficient co-ordination between government departments, NGOs and the local responsible people at grassroots level is of utmost importance to make this relief operation successful. The vulnerable class of the society will get more benefit from the humanitarian aid, if civil society is involved in the decision-making and relief supplies distribution process. More over, medium and long-term strategies are to be devised and implemented, which will play an excellent role to keep the situation under control.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2002-weekly/nos-21-07-2002/pol1.htm#1