*ISLAMABAD: *Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Wednesday issued adrought alert in most parts of the country in which it was informed that“water availability in major reservoirs is low”.
In a media release link>, the MetOffice said, “Due to deficient rainfall, drought-like conditions haveemerged over the most parts of Pakistan.”
The PMD said moderate to severe drought is prevailing in barani areas ofPunjab, lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), south Punjab, southwest Balochistanand southeast Sindh. “Small dams and groundwater boring and wells havebecome dry in most areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the departmentwarned.
The situation of drought in Pakistan during 2018. Source: PMD
“Dry condition was observed in southern parts of the country during thepast five months,” the release said, adding that the dry condition hascaused water stress in the agricultural areas of the country.
It was assured that the water condition in the major dams will improve withthe increase of the temperature. All stakeholders were requested to makeand implement water management strategies to avoid negative impacts ofdeficit rainfall on water and agriculture sector.
The department informed the people that below normal rainfall was recordedover most parts of the country. In 2018, the winter months (Jan-Mar)received -62pc well below normal rainfall whereas the figure for the springmonths Apr-May was -9.9pc.