By Dr. Abdul Razak Shaikh,
Drought is common if there is no rain during the monsoon season. Severe drought has occurred in the Thar Desert of Sindh, failure of monsoon observed in all the Taluka of District Tharparker during 2013-2014, however it is too little and too late for many crops in the area and it resulted in severe shortage of food and water. The people of Tharparker live on agriculture, live stock and daily wages. Estimated 30 to 40 percent is dependent on agriculture and Cattle respectively. Agriculture is largely dependent on monsoon rainfall.
Shortage of food and water children died in Mithi Hospital belongs to different areas. The whole district may be under threat of facing impact of famine crises due to severe drought condition. Thar Desert which begins around 300 kilometer east of Karachi and runs up to the border of India is dominated by subsistence farmers who depend on beans, wheat and sesame seeds for survival, bartering surplus in exchange for livestock.
This year again Thar is suffering from Drought and people of Area are affected and process of migration has been started. Their live stock is also severely affected. Live stock victim to drought in various ways, water shortage and their impact make animal weaker prone to diseases. The Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants of water are not properly working and more than 50 percent are out of order. The government of Sindh pays more attention over the situation.
The Sindh Government in their cabinet meeting on last Monday declared Thar as a Drought hit area and notification were also issued on Wednesday for Tharparkar except 5 Deh, 25 Deh of Umerkot, 22 Deh of Qamber-Shahdadkot, 7 Deh of Distt.Sanghar, 6 Deh of Thatta and 88 Deh of Dadu district. Government of Sindh notified that due to less rainfall, these areas of province to be declared as a drought hitter area Zone. The Thar is very remote and desert area than other parts of Sindh therefore needed full attention of Government and NGOs.
According to sources of Government 167 Deh of Tharparker and 25 Deh of Umerkot were calamity hit and 323,435 families in Tharparker and 43,240 families in Umerkot are affected .Government has decided to give 50 kilo wheat to each family every month.
The Chief minister Sindh has constituted the committee comprising Revenue Minister , education minister to visit Thar for helping to the people of Area and recommend the relief measures. Same orders have been passed for secretary health and Food.
Presently Thari people are voter of PPP and the party has won whole district except one MPA lost. Therefore MPAs, MNAs and Sindh government quickly goes to area and support the people like Milk, Drinking water, food package with emphasis on nutrition elements, attention to Child and mother health care , fodder for livestock along with vaccination.
Still no relief has been started and the affected area of district include Mithi, Nangerparker, Diplo, Dahili, Islamkot and Chachro People are migrating to the areas, where water is available for them and their live stock. Sale of live stock has been also reported. In 2014 it was estimated that migration was 35 to 45 percent from these areas. Government should accelerate their machinery and PPP leaders to help the poor people. If we were unable to help earlier than Chances of diseases spread are more in these areas and children may die from Malnutrition and pneumonia and diarrhea diseases.
