Water crisis likely to worsen as Sindh receives 91pc less than normal monsoon rains

The water crisis is expected to worsen in the coming days in Sindh where almost no rains have been recorded in the first 45 days of the current monsoon season, while weather pundits warn that in case of no rains in the current month, Sindh may not see any monsoon rains next month as well.

The monsoon season in Pakistan starts in July and lasts till September during which Sindh receives normally an average of 100 millimeters of rain during the first 45 days of the monsoon season, from July 1 to August 15. But so far the entire province has received only 8.8 millimeters of rain, which is 91 per cent less than normal rainfall in the province.

Only Badin received 32 millimeters of rain in July this year followed by Chor which received 6.5 mm of rain, while Badin also received 4 millimeters of rain while some other areas only received 1mm of rain during the first 45 days of the monsoon season.

Tharparkar district has not received any significant rain so far where the majority of people remain dependent on rains for agriculture, livestock and drinking purposes as subsoil water in the entire Tharparkar area is highly saline and brackish.

Thatta district received 4 millimeters of rain in the month of July but it also remained deprived of any good rain in the remaining weeks and it has not received any rain in August.

The situation is not different in Karachi where only traces of rain have been recorded in the first 45 days of the monsoon season and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) officials say if there is no rain in the remaining two weeks of August, there would be almost no chances of rain in September in Karachi.

PMD officials say both Sindh and Balochistan received far less rain during July and the first 15 days of August, and warned that both the provinces were unlikely to get any significant rains in the next 45 days of the monsoon season.

According PMD data, Sindh received only 8.8 millimeters of rain from July 1, 2018, to August 15, which is 91 percent less than normal, while Balochistan received only 19.6 mm of rain, which is 57 per cent less than normal monsoon rains.

“Karachi has so far received only traces of rain during the current monsoon season and if there is no rain in the next 15 days, there are little chances of any rain in the month of September in Karachi,” Director Met Karachi Abdur Rashid told The News.

The same was the situation in the Lasbela and Khuzdar districts of Balochistan where very less or almost no rain was recorded in the current monsoon season, which further worsened the drought situation and meteorologists warned that there were little chances of rain in southern Balochistan.

Due to less rain in the catchment area of the Hub Dam, which is spread over thousands of square miles in Sindh and Balochistan, only 84 million gallons of water is being provided to Karachi and the Lasbela district although the dam has a capacity to provide 161 million gallons of water per day to both the cities.

“The water situation is likely to aggravate in Sindh and Balochistan and in the coming days, and water conservation should be a top priority to meet the agricultural and domestic needs of the people. There is an urgent need to construct more dams and reservoirs so that more water could be saved to use in rainy days,” the official added.