ISLAMABAD
– The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has issued drought alert.
PMD has advised all the stakeholders to be ready to handle the situation asit is expected that dry conditions will cause water stress in thecultivated areas of the country due to limited supply of irrigation waterfor Kharif crops.
“Due to less water in Mangla reservoir and minimal expected rainfall duringthe next three months, farmers are likely to face water shortage for sowingRabi crops,” warned the Met office.
Overall, Pakistan has received -24.4% below average rainfall from May toAugust this year while among provinces, Sindh has received the mostinsufficient rainfall during this period which is -69.5% followed by -49%in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and -45% in Balochistan.
This is the second time that the Met Office has issued a drought alert thisyear, earlier the first drought alert was issued in June as a result ofinsufficient rainfalls across the country from January to May.
According to the details shared by the Met Office, during July-August 2018,below normal rainfall was recorded over most of the southern parts of thecountry. The summer months (May-June) 2018 received (7%) above normalrainfall whereas during monsoon months (July-August) 2018, it was wellbelow normal (-30.4%) and during (May-August) 2018, below normal (-24.4%)rainfall was recorded across Pakistan.
The moderate to severe drought is prevailing in most parts of Sindh, whichincludes Tharparkar, Mityari, Hyderabad, Jacobabad, Dadu, Karachi, KambarShadadkot, Umerkot, Sanghar, Sujawal, Shaheed Benzairabad, Jamshoro andKhairpur.
Dalbandin, Gwadar, Jiwani, Panjgur, Pasni, Nok Kundi, Ormara, Quetta andTurbat are among the areas affected by the drought.
Meanwhile, mild to moderate drought is prevailing at few places of southernPunjab including Multan and Mianwali and Bunji, Chilas, Gilgit and Gupis inGilgit-Baltistan.