Call For Multifaceted Approach To Tackle Drought Risks

News Desk

Islamabad: Experts at an event called for a multifaceted approach to tackle mountain drought risks. “An annual deficiency of rainfall is causing drought in southern areas. However, if winter rainfall suppresses in the South, then we will have drought in the region. Moreover, failure of the monsoon in the south-eastern part, namely Sindh province, will cause drought,” said Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) National Drought Monitoring Centre (NDMC) Deputy Director Dr Shahzada Adnan.

Speaking at a consultative workshop, the Deputy Director stated that last year, Pakistan witnessed 150 glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) events in the northern area, particularly in the Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) areas. Pakistan had winter, monsoon, and heatwave periods, whereas its data on the weather over the last seventy years was alarming as precipitation was increasing in central areas and northern parts that possessed over 7,000 glaciers, he added.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) organised a consultative workshop on the Early Drought Warning System (EDWS) for Pakistan. Experts called for a proactive, multi-pronged strategy to counter the growing risks of drought causing serious impacts on agriculture, livelihoods, and the health of local communities, mostly at risk of natural calamities due to exacerbating global warming and climate change.

Dr Shahzada suggested that real-time monitoring, improvement in methodologies, and joint research are necessary at the regional level, whereas at the national level, strengthening the observational network and media training were necessary to understand and communicate the climate risk.

PMD has seven dedicated early warning centres for different natural hazards that issue short, medium, and long-term forecasts, comprising 126 Met observatories and 86 automatic weather stations, Dr Shahzada Adnan added.

National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Bilal Anwar stated that from a climate change perspective, early warning is a very difficult job as there have been failures globally in this area and it is necessary to understand such issues in their depth.

“We need to equip ourselves and make ourselves capable of understanding information related to drought and climate events. The drought had a slow onset and diverse impacts, causing long-term effects on the affected population,” the CEO added.

Bilal Anwar further said that the NDRMF is an organisation that is well placed to address the drought issue as it has three pillars of disaster management, including drought monitoring and early warning systems (EWS), vulnerability and risk assessment, preparedness and mitigation, and response.

The NDRMF supported 27 water conservation structures in Balochistan, 7 EWS in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, GB, and Balochistan, and it also implemented 1,000 ha plantations across Pakistan.

Bilal added that it was easier to mobilise donors and funding for floods but difficult for droughts; however, mobilisation has started in this regard.

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf noted that floods and droughts used to affect the whole ecosystem, whereas drought was a slow poison that affected it gradually.

“We need to be proactive to manage natural resources and shift to green infrastructure,” Dr Ashraf added.