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    Drought: By, Usman Ilyas Assistant Professor Civil Engineering Department University of Management & Technology, Lahore

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    Abdul Wahab
    This document discusses drought in Pakistan. It defines drought and explains that it is a period with a water supply deficit, either on the surface or underground, that can last for months or years. Droughts in Pakistan can be meteorological, hydrological, or agricultural in nature. The document outlines some of the key impacts of drought such as economic impacts on agriculture, environmental impacts like increased erosion, and social impacts including health issues. It notes that the Thar Desert, Kirthar Range, and rangelands of Balochistan are particularly prone to drought in Pakistan. The worst recorded droughts in different provinces occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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    Drought: By, Usman Ilyas Assistant Professor Civil Engineering Department University of Management & Technology, Lahore

    Uploaded by

    Abdul Wahab
    66 views35 pages
    This document discusses drought in Pakistan. It defines drought and explains that it is a period with a water supply deficit, either on the surface or underground, that can last for months or years. Droughts in Pakistan can be meteorological, hydrological, or agricultural in nature. The document outlines some of the key impacts of drought such as economic impacts on agriculture, environmental impacts like increased erosion, and social impacts including health issues. It notes that the Thar Desert, Kirthar Range, and rangelands of Balochistan are particularly prone to drought in Pakistan. The worst recorded droughts in different provinces occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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    Drought

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    This document discusses drought in Pakistan. It defines drought and explains that it is a period with a water supply deficit, either on the surface or underground, that can last for months or years. Droughts in Pakistan can be meteorological, hydrological, or agricultural in nature. The document outlines some of the key impacts of drought such as economic impacts on agriculture, environmental impacts like increased erosion, and social impacts including health issues. It notes that the Thar Desert, Kirthar Range, and rangelands of Balochistan are particularly prone to drought in Pakistan. The worst recorded droughts in different provinces occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    66 views35 pages

    Drought: By, Usman Ilyas Assistant Professor Civil Engineering Department University of Management & Technology, Lahore

    Uploaded by

    Abdul Wahab
    This document discusses drought in Pakistan. It defines drought and explains that it is a period with a water supply deficit, either on the surface or underground, that can last for months or years. Droughts in Pakistan can be meteorological, hydrological, or agricultural in nature. The document outlines some of the key impacts of drought such as economic impacts on agriculture, environmental impacts like increased erosion, and social impacts including health issues. It notes that the Thar Desert, Kirthar Range, and rangelands of Balochistan are particularly prone to drought in Pakistan. The worst recorded droughts in different provinces occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 35

    DROUGHT

    By,
    USMAN ILYAS
    Assistant Professor
    Civil Engineering Department
    University of Management & Technology, Lahore
    What is a Drought?
    Drought is defined as a
    period in which a region
    has a deficit in its water
    supply whether surface
    or underground water. It
    can last for months or
    years, or even days…..
    though droughts can
    persist for several years,
    even a short, intense
    drought can cause
    significant damage and
    harm to the local
    economy.
    Look at the pictures and tell what you observe?
    Are we All vulnerable TO DROUGHT
    • It is one of the most widespread disaster.
    • Often, people do not react to drought like they do to
    other sudden disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones,
    and floods.
    • Since drought conditions develop over period of time,
    and without immediately perceptible changes to
    environment.
    • Hence drought is called a ‘ slow on set ’ disaster.
    HOw A DROUGHT sTARTs
    • A drought starts when total rainfall is well below
    average for several months
    • Other signs of drought include:
    1. Very dry soil
    2. Trees have a sign of dying
    3. Weather getting hotter and hotter
    Causes
    Drought can be caused by a number of factors.
    • The most important one though relates to the
    amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as this is
    what creates precipitation.
    • If there is an above average presence of dry, high
    pressure air instead, less moisture is available to
    produce precipitation.
    • Even, deforestation for agriculture and/or building
    combined with the resultant erosion can also cause
    drought to begin because as soil is moved away from
    an area it is less able to absorb moisture when it
    falls.
    Droughts can be of three
    kinds

    •Meteorological drought
    •Hydrological drought
    •Agricultural drought
    Meteorological drought
    This happens when the actual
    rainfall in an area is significantly
    less than the climatological mean
    of that area. The country as a
    whole may have a normal
    monsoon, but different
    meteorological districts and sub-
    divisions can have below normal
    rainfall. The rainfall categories for
    smaller areas are defined by their
    deviation from a meteorological
    area's normal rainfall.
    Hydrological drought
    Hydrological Drought is associated with the affect of
    low rainfalls on water level in reservoirs, rivers & lakes
    This type of drought are notices sometimes after a
    meteorology drought.
    Agricultural drought
    Agricultural drought occurs when there isn’t enough
    water for a crop to grow at the particular time. This
    type of drought doesn’t depend only in the amount
    of rainfalls where water is used carelessly for irrigation
    and other purpose
    Consequences of Drought
    There are short and long term consequences with any
    drought because of nature and society's dependence on
    water. Problems associated with drought can have
    economic, environmental, and social impacts on both
    the areas where they occur and areas that have
    relations with those where the drought happens.
    Impacts of Drought
    • Economic impact (agriculture and the income
    generated from crops in short term and
    unemployment of farmers)

    • Environmental impact (insect infestations and plant


    diseases, increased erosion, habitat. Plant and animal
    species can suffer tremendously, and over time
    desertification can happen with an extreme lack of
    moisture at long term)
    Impacts of Drought
    • Social impact (disputes between users of available
    water, inequalities in water distribution between
    wealthy and poor, disparities in areas in need of
    disaster relief, and a decline in health)
    Drought Actors
    • Federal Government: Planning Commission, WAPDA,
    Ministry of Climate Change, Ministry of Food Research,
    NDMA, PMD, SUPARCO;
    • Provincial Government: Departments: P&D, Food,
    Health, Livestock, Forest, Agriculture, Irrigation,
    PDMA
    • Districts: Relevant departments of the District
    Government led by the DC;
    • UN Agencies: WFP, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, relevant NGOss
    Deserts / Rangelands
    Cholistan
    Drought prone regions of Pakistan
    • The Thar Desert: spread over 320,000 square kms with 85% in
    India.
    • Pakistan’s Thar desert is spread over approx 50,000 square kms
    across Tharparkar, parts of Umarkot, Sanghar, Khairpur and Ghotki;
    • Kirthar Range in Sindh: Spread over 25,000 sq kms, it extends
    into Jamshoro, Dadu and part of Thatta district;
    • Rangelands of Balochistan: comprise 79% of the landmass.
    Include Central Balochistan Quetta and Kalat; Western Balochistan
    desert: Chagai, Kharan, Gwador, Lasbela and Kharan. Eastern
    Balochistan Zhob and Loralai regions;
    • Cholistan Desert: 26,3000 square kms along Bahawalnagar,
    Bahawalpur & Rahim Yar Khan and the Indian border;
    • Thal Desert: Bhakkar, Khushab, Mianwali and Leyyah between
    Jhelum and Indus; Issues: water management, desertification,
    barani agriculture, poor services, weak environmental
    management
    Brief History of Hazards in Pakistan
    • Pakistan continues to suffer natural and human
    induced hazards
    • Natural hazards include Cyclones, drought,
    floods, landslides, earthquakes
    • Human induced include fires, terrorism, civil
    unrest, industrial accidents, transport accidents
    and war etc.
    • About 6,037 people were killed and 8,989,631
    were affected from 1993 – 2002 *

    * World Disasters Report, 2003


    Brief History of Hazards in Pakistan
    Frequency of Significant hazards in Pakistan (1954 - 2004)
    Overall Rank Natural Disaster Degree of Severity
    1 Avalanches 1
    2 Cyclones 16
    3 Droughts 4
    4 Earthquakes 18
    5 Epidemics 6
    6 Floods 33
    8 Landslides 3
    9 Pest Attacks 1
    10 Extreme Temperature 12
    Estimated No. of people Killed and the Financial losses (1926 – 2006)
    Disasters No. of Events Casualties Damages (Million
    USD)
    Drought 4 223 247
    Earthquake 22 142812 5200
    Epidemic 10 283 0
    Flood 53 11767 6000
    Landslides 13 413 0
    Windstorms 21 11654 4
    6:2T2rPaM
    nsport 19 420 179
    Source: Disaster Risk Management, TWG Working Group Meeting, United Nations, May 17, 2007.
    Brief History of Hazards in Pakistan
    • The droughts and the associated famines have
    been affecting the Indus Basin from time to time
    • Worst drought occurred in 1899, 1920 and 1935
    in Punjab province *
    • 1902 and 1951 in the KPK *
    • 1871, 1881, 1899, 1931, 1947 and 1998 in the
    Sindh province *

    * Ahmad et al., Drought mitigation in Pakistan: Current status and options for future strategies. Working
    Paper 85. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (2004).
    Why Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to
    drought?
    Estimated 30 years province wise precipitation in Pakistan (mm) *
    Period KPK Punjab Balochistan Sindh
    Dec - Mar 228.8 81.1 69.3 14.2
    Jun - Sept 252.9 260.3 64.2 137.5
    Apr - May 106.5 36.5 20.1 5.5
    Oct - Nov 37.7 11.3 4.8 4.4

    • In each season some regions of the country are extremely dry and
    always suffer from drought
    • If following seasons do not receive sufficient precipitation
    • the drought conditions emerge in these areas and gaining
    severity.
    • So that drought has become an intermittent
    phenomenon in the country.

    * S. A. Anjum et al., An Assessment to vulnerability, extent, characteristics and severity of drought hazard in
    Pakistan, Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
    Extent and Status of Drought in
    Pakistan
    • Extreme drought of 1998 – 2002:
    • The severely affected provinces were Balochistan &
    Sindh
    • 1.5 million people were affected and killed about
    two million animals
    • In Sindh, 127 people died , mostly in Tharparkar
    • About 60% people moved to irrigated area

    8/22/2016 9:16:23 PM 27
    Extent and Status of Drought in
    Pakistan
    • Moderate drought of 2004 till 2005:
    • Again gripped the Balochistan and Sindh
    • No damage or death occurred
    • In winter of 2005 average rainfall was 40% less
    and
    snowfall was 25% less than normal

    • Weak drought of mid 2009 – mid 2010:


    • Occurred in upper parts of Pakistan i.e., Punjab,
    KPK, Gilgit, Kashmir and Northern Balochistan
    • The drought caused 30% less rain in monsoon
    • Farmers were worst affected
    Thank you…

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