TR-121 : Development of drought response plan water availability

Abstract

The occurrence of drought in past have affected many aspects of social and economic life of the country, especially activities such as agriculture, municipal water supply, forestry, industry, commerce, wild life preservation and fishery. Shortages of water and possibility of a subsequent drought arise because of significant changes in the availability conditions of water for supply and to meet the demand.

The recent widespread drought has resulted in severe adverse effects on food and agriculture production in many parts of the world leading to low market prices, a depressed economy, and population displacement. The response to drought should aim at making available timely and accurate data and information to enable government authorities to take remedial decisions. These data and information should include not only climatological information, but also information of the hydrological special and economic impacts. A systematic description of important problem area and the potential solution is necessary for effective and frugal government response in order to avoid over or under reactions. There is also a need to integrate the response of various private , public and governmental bodies, and maintain proper channels of communication and responsibility as the drought identifies.

The drought response system is developed with the view that it would avoid past problems, reflect needs that are pertinent to the current and expected conditions and ensure effective management of drought response in the long run. The system does not only incorporate the lessons learned and capability to take definitive action, but it would also be flexible enough to adjust quickly to newer unexpected impacts. In order to deal with the complexities of emergency drought conditions, an assessment system has been kept separate from response system. The assessment system is composed of representatives of concerned agencies comprising a number of task forces. This system depends on the variety of data and information from a broad range of sources. The assessment system would work for drought monitoring, drought identification and impacts assessment. The response system would be responsible for any action to be taken to solve the particular drought problem. This includes decisions to make media announcements, funding and co-ordination of effort and resources, etc.

The criteria/indices of drought identification and plan activation is discussed in brief. Development of drought response plan could provide an idea of organizational structure to coordinate assessment and response activities of central and state government. Also the limited resources available to the government to-mitigate the effects of drought could be allocated in an optimal manner.