This year’s Desertification and Drought Day observed around the slogan “Rising Up from Drought Together.” will send a strong message to drought-prone countries to join hands, reiterate their commitment to encourage households, communities, the private sector and countries to act together to tackle the immediate impacts of drought and build long-term resilience.
Many countries around the world, including Pakistan, are experiencing periodic low and unpredictable rainfall over an extended period of time due to climate change, degradation of land, deforestation, and overexploitation of farmlands and grasslands which are contributing factors to crop failure, water stress, land degradation and low growth performance.
The drought impact can be mitigated by developing water sources – such as micro dams, ponds and wells, water rationing, restoring pastures, recovering the water holding capacity of soils by tree plantation, protecting riverbanks, shifting to drought-tolerant crops and relocation of herds from vulnerable pastures.
We need to adopt cogent drought policies at the federal and provincial levels, launch a well-thought-out and coordinated drought action plan, implement comprehensive drought-management strategies, improve water security through groundwater recharge, create more water reservoirs, ensure water availability, and enhance forest cover throughout the country.
I am glad that Pakistan is working in many areas to mitigate the impact of drought which include the implementation of a national-level programme to plant 3.29 billion plants over an area of One million hectares in desertification and drought-prone areas, the launch of the Protected Areas Initiative to preserve the natural flora and fauna and is making all-out efforts to achieve the voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Targets by 2030.
We need to join hands with regional countries, in particular, and the rest of the world, in general, to save the globe from droughts to ensure our food security.
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