THE CURRENT monsoon season is fast approaching towards its end and Thar, with a population of little over a million, is facing drought-like situation yet again and its people are getting ready to move out of the area.

The drought is a peculiar characteristic of arid areas. Thar has not received significant rainfall for almost five continuous years. Weather experts have forecast that Thar is not likely to get significant rainfall in coming months as well.

This is not the first time that Thar is affected by the drought. There have been several occasions before as well when people of this area had witnessed such miseries, the extent may however be less. In 1987 as well, Thar had witnessed a mass exodus due to drought when hundreds of thousands of their animals perished due to non-availability of fodder.

In view of the long history of drought the government, although, has undertaken certain rehabilitation plans by introducing uplift schemes, such as extension and improvement of wells, construction of roads and digging of water ponds. But all these efforts of the government are still far from satisfactory.

At every such occasion the federal and provincial governments collectively spend billions of rupees for helping the drought-affected people by supplying wheat, cash money and water along with fodder for their livestock. But the question arises that how far government can help these drought-stricken people in this fashion of putting emergency relief centres, pumping cash flow to the calamity-hit areas, sending trucks of food staples for human and animals and appealing peoples of the country to deposit money in the drought relief funds?

It has now generally been accepted that the Thar has been subjected to considerable climate change over the last several years. Recurrent droughts and associated famines in the area over the past have led to the realization that this will be a continuing phenomenon and that these droughts are likely to persists. And keeping in mind global climatic changes it is apparent that in future, too, we should be ready to face such situations until some thing practical is done to avert it. Therefore, instead of initiating emergency relief operations every four to five years why not we invest one time and get rid of such famine-like situations forever by converting this desert of Sindh into an oasis. For effective long-term disaster mitigation, we must develop strategies to change social and institutional structures which increase people’s vulnerability to disasters.

Pakistan is a signatory of the United Nation’s Convention for Combating Drought and Desertification (UNCCD) and is in the process of finalizing its National Action Plan to fight desertification which briefly highlights the activities and the actions, to be undertaken to address issues of desertification and drought through specific measures to be adopted under the convention. All drought mitigation measures of the government in Thar could get itself on forefront to prevent the continuous land degradation in the country. Therefore the government should prepare medium- and long-term strategies to play an effective role in preparing a drought-combating programme in Thar, and all stakeholders should be consulted while designing such a programme.

Thar receives annual precipitation totals of between 150 to 250 millimetres.In a large area some scattered vegetation permits low intensity grazing but no rain-fed agriculture can be maintained on a continuing basis. The timing of the rainfall as well as the amount is critical to vegetation growth,especially of annual species. Heavy rains at the beginning of the season followed by dry weather can mean that seed will germinate and then die.

Since subsistence agriculture is the main mode of employment in Thar, the main effect of drought has been to reduce the agricultural productivity. Successive crop failures led to food scarcity, resulting in malnutrition, unchecked diseases and untimely famine with staggering loss to human and animal life.

The critical period though is June and July before the arrival of rain. At this time all pastures are close to total exhaustion and many of wells are dry. The animals are exceedingly weak and even the late arrival of rains can bring heavy losses. This has necessitated the development of management strategies, which minimize the impact of harsh drought conditions.

Given these changes the government of today has a greater responsibility for the successful management of its dry lands then was the case in the past. As a result it is crucial that ministers are advised by the managers with a broad knowledge of system, environmental issues and a holistic approach to problem solving. Given the desert nature of the climate, surface water supplies in Thar are virtually non-existent and so recourse has had to be made to ground water. Water withdrawal is now vastly in excess of recharge and as a consequence ground water level is falling vary rapidly. Not only this the severe earth -quake that had hit the area in recent past affected badly the under ground water resource of Thar as well, making the situation even worse.Nevertheless, although every one accepts that the over-draft situation is getting worse, there is no physical water development strategy as yet.

The history of the world is full of the examples when water is supplied to the desert areas to make it oasis. We need to initiate a water resources development programme in Thar to change the fate and face of the area. Due to scanty and erratic rainfall pattern in Thar attempts to exploit groundwater is not likely to yield tangible results. The only option left is extension of irrigation system towards Thar. If we want to involve participation of drought affected people of Thar in the march towards goal of agricultural development and self-sufficiency in food grain, then we would have to do it.

Here the question arises that how we can expand the provincial irrigation network towards Thar when the province is already facing shortage of water? The answer is that if we want people of Thar to live a drought free life in a manner that rainfall, though is important, may no longer remain a governing factor then we must have to supply a non-perennial irrigation canal to Thar.

The monsoon pattern of the country reveals that rainy season in northern areas starts very early then in Thar. More often it happens that flood water starts reaching sindh (Sukhar barrage) before rainy season in Thar. Therefore proposed flood canal can bring surplus up-country flood water to Thar at a time when people of the area start migrating due to absence of rain.

This canal water can be used for recharging the dried wells, storing water in ponds for human and livestock use and for crop production. The water storage ponds can be lined with polyethylene plastic film to eliminate high seepage losses of desert areas and the pond may be annexed with a sand filter to provide clean and sediment free water for human consumption.

The need for a reliable water supply system in Thar will become even more important and necessary in near future after execution of coal-fired thermal power station in the area for harnessing the world’s largest coal reserves.

What seems to be clear is that capital investment required undertaking this project might not be recovered and repaid solely from agricultural activities. If the government decides to fund such a project for Thar, it would have to be thought of as a subsidized regional development programme rather then a straight-forward economic investment.

The only thing missing for converting Thar into an oasis is water, which can be successfully imported to the area by extending Nara canal irrigation network, and running it only in high flood period without causing any dent in the Indus water apportionment accord. This requires only a will and strong commitment for the development of this backward area.