Drought set to continue

Pakistan's meteorological department predicts a long spell of dry weather in the coming months. The forecast comes as the country's premier water authority has already announced a severe water shortage for the winter crop. "There is no significant rain activity [expected] in near future. Even the rain systems during the winter rainy season [December-March] appear to be too weak to bring any substantial change in the water situation in our reservoirs," Malik Ghulam Qadir, director of forecasting at the national met office, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan is facing a water crisis mainly due to poor rainfall during the monsoon season. The country received almost 41 percent below normal rains with 88 percent less in the province of Sindh, 71 percent shortage in Balochistan, 31 percent below normal in Punjab while NWFP received 4 percent less rains. The water situation worsened due to the low temperatures in northern catchment areas during the summer, which contributed to lesser snowmelt. One of the main reservoirs of the country, Terbela, heavily depends on the snowmelt with up to 80 percent contribution from that source and the rest from rainwater. On the contrary, the main contribution to the second biggest reservoir, Mangla, is rainwater. "Our water availability for the winter crop has fallen by almost 50 percent this year. Last year we had 9.4 MAF [million acre feet] water available during the same period of time, which stands now at 5.5 MAF," Fida Hussain, senior engineer operations at the country's premier water authority, Indus River System Authority (IRSA), told IRIN in Islamabad. According to the meteorologists, weather patterns are abnormal throughout the world. "And in this region as well. Like in India, the rain activity was only in eastern and southern parts while northwestern parts didn't receive much rain," Qadir said. "The drought-like situation prevailing for over the last five to seven years has severely affected the desert and upper areas of Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan, excluding some areas having canals," Kamran Nawaz, a community services officer working with an international humanitarian organisation, Mercy Corps, told IRIN from the southwestern city of Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan province. Nawaz added that all 23 districts of Balochistan have been hit by the current drought. "The districts of Chagai, Khuzdar, Pishin, Quetta and Loralai are severely drought-affected areas as the people have no access to drinking water", he said. The absence of rains has also contributed to falls in sub-soil water levels, according to water experts. "In some areas of Balochistan it has dropped to 700-800 feet," Nawaz said. Pakistan is faced with a range of issues related to the water crisis, according to Pakistan National Human Development Report 2003 by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The report highlighted issues ranging from inadequate reservoir capacity to the low delivery efficiency of irrigation, the problem of drainage, waterlogging and salinity, inequitable distribution of irrigation water and inadequate operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. Most of the problems highlighted in the report are fairly well known, according to water experts. "But the imminent task before the government is to realign these issues with a national water policy and offer solutions based on national priorities," Nawaz said.