KARACHI: Officials in government agencies and non-governmental organisations on Tuesday discussed ways to form a concerted policy to effectively respond to the drought in eight Sindh districts.

The availability of water, food, fodder for millions of livestock, livelihood and resultant migration were the issues discussed threadbare at a programme organised by the Sindh rehabilitation department and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) here.

The affected districts are Thar, Umerkot, Sanghar, Thatta, Badin, Jamshoro, Dadu and Qamber-Shahdadkot.

Wheat distributed to 180,000 families in Thar

Rehabilitation Secretary Akhtar Bugti said the provincial government’s chief priority was to take care of the people facing the drought with relief activities. He added a policy document vis-à-vis drought situations would soon be completed, which would cater to, and provide guidance to efficiently respond to such conditions at present and in future.

He said Thar was among the eight districts of Sindh where drought had begun to haunt people and animals alike. He said every sector should have a role to play and linked to others.

He said the immediate underground water in the first equifier of Thar was brackish while a number of reverse-osmosis plants were not functional.

“The government is responsible for providing relief to the people. I appreciate the cooperation extended by the NDMA as in addition to other measures, it helped us linking with the National Database and Registration Authority to get exact number of households in the affected districts.”

Wheat distribution in Thar

Mr Bugti said there were 276,000 households in Thar and wheat had already been distributed to 180,000 of them. Besides, there were 6.5 million livestock in the desert district of which 500,000 had been vaccinated.

He said some 49,910 pregnant and lactating women were in the affected areas, most of them resided in Thar.

He said the provincial government had started a three-month programme to provide food packages to those women for which Rs49m had already been released.

He said there were 54 health facilities for children and mothers in Thar, which were providing treatment and food.

He said RO plants were to be functional for which the Sindh chief minister had released funds.

NDMA official Brig Mukhtar Ahmed, who co-chaired the meeting with Mr Bugti, said rains had been below average in a number of districts of Sindh while the level of dams also remained less than the previous two years. He said such districts were mainly in Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan.

He said drought returned every 16 to 20 years and the last recorded drought was in 1999-2000 which affected three million people in 58 districts across the country and inflicted the losses of $1.2bn.

He said the meeting aimed at devising short-term as well as long-term strategies regarding the issue.

He said President Arif Alvi had also directed the NDMA to submit weekly situation report. He said the Sindh government had already taken certain measures and the NDMA had also offered its assistance to the provincial authorities.

Sindh Commission on the Status of Women chairperson Nuzhat Shirin said early marriages and little birth spacing formed a key reason behind malnourished women that also affected their children.

She also demanded that the commission should also be part of the overall effort to combat against drought situation.

Raheela Saad of the NDMA said infant mortality in the affected districts was grave because mothers were sick.

Govt should provide bajra instead of wheat

She said bajra (pearl millet) was general staple food for the people of Thar and that should be provided to them instead of wheat.

Her point was endorsed by several other participants as well. However, it was said wheat was not alien to the people of the desert and they ate them as well, however, not as fondly as bajra.

NDMA’s Idrees Mehsud said structural problems in the affected districts were fewer while advocacy and awareness were the things which were required to be given priority.

A participant said the reason behind rampant reports about suicide coming from the desert region were linked with the people’s inability to repay the money which they lent for purchasing seeds and could not fathom harsh weather would eat up their fortunes.

She said the people should be aware of the weather conditions to save them from such disasters.

The audience was informed that a consortium comprising various foreign and local NGOs had been formed and it was surveying the affected districts to assess needs and formulate action plans.

A participant said around half of Thar district’s 19,200 kilometres formed the site for Thar Coal warranting the required change in overall policy.

An expert said 43 per cent of Thar’s water was potable and environment was compatible to grow several species.

The participants said not just Thar but other districts of Sindh reported similar child mortality.

An official from Sanghar said two of its talukas were partially affected by the drought where 70pc of the 9,000 affected households had been given food and 150,000 animals were vaccinated. No significant migration was witnessed there.

In Umerkot, an official said 25 of its dehs had deficient rains and more than 21,000 out of 31,390 households had been provided with wheat. Besides, 78,000 out of 661,441 animals were vaccinated.

Representatives from the army and Rangers said they were prepared to combat against disasters.

‘Ocean of clean drinking water’

Naseer Memon of the Thar Foundation said there was an ocean of clean drinking water flowing 190 metres beneath in Thar. He said droughts did not strike suddenly and required preparedness should be there to combat against them.

He said Thar’s economy was changing; the area was mainstreaming, but its drought should not be made an occasion for charity.

He said most people migrate not because of their own, but because fodder was not available for their livestock. He asked the government to provide required fodder for animals to stop such migrations.

He said drinking water should be made available through pipelines. At which Brig Ahmed said such thing was already there in Pakistan’s Cholistan desert.

An official from Thar said the desert was not infamously leading in child mortality as most media reports erroneously portrayed. He said many NGOs hesitated to cover the region’s remote areas, which needed the most their help.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018