Drought in Tharparkar: from Seasonal to Forced Migration

CRISTINA ALVAREZ-QUINONES TORRES Drought in Tharparkar: From Seasonal to Forced Migration akistan is ranked in the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change (National Disaster Management Authority - NDMA). According to the Global Climate Risk index, Pakistan, together with Haiti and the Philippines were the most affected countries in 2012 (Zofeen, 2014). Due to its geography, it is greatly exposed to climate-change-related risks. Pakistan’s fresh water resources are provided by monsoon rainfalls and the melting of glaciers from the Himalayas, which are retreating faster than in any other part of the world due to rising temperatures (Sattar, 2014). This is likely Pto cause not only glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) but also increasing water flows into rivers. In addition, according to the Director of the Pakistan Meteoro- logical Department, monsoon patterns are also changing partly as a result of the well-known “Asian brown cloud1” derived from air pollution. Proof of this change of pattern might be found in the 2010 floods in Pakistan, when monsoon rains occurred in the northern part of the country, which is normally monsoon free. Had this level of rainfall occurred in arid zones, the rainwater would have been absorbed by rivers, thus avoiding the devastating consequences of the floods. On the whole, Pakistan’s climate is arid, with levels of precipitation that are low (average rainfall in below 240 millimetres) and uneven, as 81% of river flow and 65% of precipitation take place in the 3 months of the monsoon season (Sattar, 2014). As a result, the country is prone to droughts, which have been increasing in number and intensity over the past few decades. In a country highly dependent on agriculture (as well as on natural resources such as natural gas from the desert zone of Baluchistan) all these extreme environmental situations are having severe impacts on this sector, and thus on food security, but also on migration patterns. Historically, Pakistan has been a country with high levels of migration, both internal and international, linked to both its geography and environmental changes. For instance, during the colonial period, the British intro- duced canal irrigation in what is now Punjab province, bringing farmers from the East; and in the post-colonial period, following the construction of the Mangla Dam the British offered to relocate the population displaced from the project to Britain (Sattar, 2014). This paper will analyse the drought that occurred in the region of Tharparkar, in Sindh province starting in 2013 and reaching its most devastating point between March and August 2014. The region of Tharparkar is traditionally prone to droughts, and its population, which is dependent on agriculture and livestock, has long suffered from extreme environmental conditions that have led to problems of food insecurity 1. “Asian brown cloud, a large atmospheric brown cloud that occurs annually from about November through May over eastern China and southern Asia. The Asian brown cloud is caused by large amounts of aerosols (such as soot and dust) produced in the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass across the region. It has been linked to decreases in summer monsoon rainfall in India since 1930, the southward shift of the summer monsoon in eastern China, declines in agricultural production, and increases in respiratory and cardiovascular problems in the people inhabiting the region”. http://global.britannica.com SEM 2015 65 CRISTINA ALVAREZ-QUINONES TORRES ASIA-PACIFIC DROUGHT IN THARPARKAR: FROM SEASONAL TO FORCED MIGRATION and chronicle malnutrition, increasing neo-natal mortality and diseases and death among livestock, all causing an increasing degree of forced migration. This paper will focus on the development of the drought and its consequences for the population, both in terms of migration and livelihood. It will also analyse the response and measures undertaken by the Government and will attempt to set out a series of recommendations to address the problem. 1. RAINFALL AND DROUGHT CONDITIONS IN PAKISTAN Rainfall variability in Pakistan is high. While the northern half of the country is semi-arid to very humid, the southern part, in which Tharparkar is located, is arid to hyper-arid. Drought is a slow onset event: its effects can be less obvious as they usually accumulate slowly over a long period of time. Consequently droughts normally affect a higher number of people than other natural hazards (Pakistan Meteorological Department). According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department a drought “is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a defi- ciency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region”. Droughts can be meteorological – defined by the dryness and duration of the dry season; agricultural – mainly affecting food production and farming; hydrological – associated with the effects of low levels of precipitation on the water supply; and socio-economic – occurring when the demand for an economic good exceeds supply, due to weather-related water shortages (Pakistan Meteorological Department). According to the Jaggarta organization, the worst drought that has taken place in Pakistan in the last 50 years is that of 1998-2002, of which the El Niño2 phenomenon in 1997 was an important starting point. The Meteorological Department of Paki- stan has also established a link between El Niño and instances of drought, as over a period of 100 years (1871-1988), 11 out of 21 droughts occurred in El Nino years. It also associates droughts with factors such as the prevalence of high-pressure systems, winds that carry continental instead of oceanic air masses, deforestation, and global warming. Climate change is part of the causes of drought, as can be seen in both the changing patterns of precipitation (the monsoon occurring in September rather than in July and August) and in the intensity of events (waves heat, floods cyclones, etc…). But are other factors have also been identified (United Nations Pakistan, 2014), such as the demand for natural resources and institutional apathy. A growing population increases the demand for natural resources, which are largely non-renewable such as groundwater or land among others. The use of and drilling for groundwater increases salt contamination and thus reduces the amount of fresh water. Population growth also increases the exploitation of other natural resources such as minerals, present in the region of Sindh, further reducing the amount of available land and water, and urbanisation and the growth of urban areas affect the supply of water to the surrounding region. Public institutions do not, however, seem to actively respond to these issues. As the Pakistan Meteorological Department recognises, “no organisations dealing with the drought issues exist in Pakistan and the responses to drought for the distressed economic and social sector, whenever such situation arose, are taken on emergency 2. “A climatic event occurring every two to seven years, characterized by warming of surface waters and reduced upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water off the western coast of South America, causing die-offs of plankton and fish and influencing jet stream winds, altering storm tracks and affecting the climate over much of the world”. http://www.thefreedictionary.com SEM 2015 66 Map 1. Map of deserts in Pakistan Source: Sindh Provincial Disaster Management Authority and on ad hoc basis”. There is also a lack of communication and coordination between institutions (Di Nunzio, 2014) as well as limited budgets for mitigation, or even development. The Government of Pakistan controversially classified the 2014 drought in Tharparkar as socioeconomic (Hashim, 2014), and it was only when different media and NGOs started to report infant mortality and loss of livestock due to disease that the Government began to recognis”e the seriousness of the situation (Pakistan Water Partnership, 2014). 1.1. Tharparkar: description of the drought According to the Sindh Relief Department, the district of Tharparkar has been declared calamity-hit in 1968, 1978, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2012. The desert of Tharparkar covers more than 22.000 km² and is the largest in Pakistan and the 18th largest in the world. Its population numbers 1.5 million people, living in 2300 villages and urban settlements. It is composed of six talukas – Mithi, Islamkot, Chachro, Dihly, Diplo and Ngarparkar – each of which receive different levels of rainfall. The land, although arid, is highly fertile but depends on the July to September rainfall. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s rainfall pattern is known to be highly variable and this variability seems to be increasing as a result of global warming (Sattar, 2014). Rainfall in the desert varies between 100mm and 700mm (Pakistan Water Partnership, 2014), of which the summer monsoon (July to September) accounts for 60% to 70% of the annual rainfall (Pakistan Meteorolog- ical Department). This is illustrated by a comparison of monthly rainfall levels in 2013 versus average levels in the province of Sindh: March -89%, April +82%, May -100%, June +292%, July - 83%, August +50% and September -41%. The figures for 2014 SEM 2015 67 CRISTINA ALVAREZ-QUINONES TORRES ASIA-PACIFIC DROUGHT IN THARPARKAR: FROM SEASONAL TO FORCED MIGRATION highlight the worsening of the drought: March -17%, April -18%, May -98%, June -40%, July - 84%, August -17% and September -99% (Pakistan Meteorological Depart- ment). This translates into a rainfall deficit of around 30% between March 2013 and February 2014 with some towns barely receiving a drop of water (JSWO, 2014). The vastly reduced monsoon season is thus the main cause of droughts in Pakistan, in an area already prone to droughts. And pollution and climate change are making of them a common phenomenon in the area (JSWO, 2014).

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