*ISLAMABAD: *Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Wednesday issued a drought 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 Met Office said, “Due to deficient rainfall, drought-like conditions have emerged over the most parts of Pakistan.”
The PMD said moderate to severe drought is prevailing in barani areas of Punjab, lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), south Punjab, southwest Balochistan and southeast Sindh. “Small dams and groundwater boring and wells have become dry in most areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the department warned.
The situation of drought in Pakistan during 2018. Source: PMD
“Dry condition was observed in southern parts of the country during the past five months,” the release said, adding that the dry condition has caused water stress in the agricultural areas of the country.
It was assured that the water condition in the major dams will improve with the increase of the temperature. All stakeholders were requested to make and implement water management strategies to avoid negative impacts of deficit rainfall on water and agriculture sector.
The department informed the people that below normal rainfall was recorded over most parts of the country. In 2018, the winter months (Jan-Mar) received -62pc well below normal rainfall whereas the figure for the spring months Apr-May was -9.9pc.