22 Feb

Droughts

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Contents

• Introduction
• Types of droughts
• Causes
• Impacts of Droughts in India
• How is Drought Declared in India
• Drought Relief Measures / Coping with droughts
• Some Limitations of Drought Management in India

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Important Quotes:

“Indians know that the Monsoon is the real finance minister of India” – Environmental Activists
Sunita Narain

Introduction

• Drought is a period of below average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged
  shortages of its water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or for years.

Types of droughts

• Meteorological drought is brought about when there is a prolonged time with less than average precipitation. Meteorological drought usually precedes other kinds of drought.
• Agricultural droughts are droughts that affect crop production or ecology of the range. They are caused by shortfall in water available to the crops. It can be caused by extended period of low precipitation, poor water management, soil erosion or other such situations.
• Hydrological drought is brought about when water reserves available in sources such as
  aquifers, rivers, lakes and reservoirs fall below the statistical average. Hydrological drought tend to show up more slowly because it involves stored water that is used but not replenished. Like an agricultural drought this can be triggered by more than just a loss of rainfall.
• Socioeconomic droughts occur when water shortage starts to impact people’s lives, individually and collectively.

Causes

• Natural Factors
  • Precipitation deficiency
    • El Nino Southern Oscillation: All the severe meteorological and hydrological droughts between 1870-2018 were found to be caused due to positive phase of ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation)
    • Lack of pre-Monsoon shower. For e.g. in 2019, India witnessed the second driest pre-monsoon season in 65 years.
  • Dry Season
  • Land Degradation – Desertification, erosion etc.
• Anthropological factors
  • Poor water management
    • Subsidies on equipment and electricity usage has encouraged over-exploitation of ground water.
    • Surfeit of dams have wreaked havoc on riverine system.
    • Poor rainwater conservation – Currently India captures only 8% of its rainfall – one of the lowest in the world.
    • Too much focus on water consuming power generation (like coal based power plants)
    • Agricultural inefficiencies – Agriculture consumes more than 90% of India’s water use. 80% of this water is used for water guzzling crops like rice, wheat and sugarcane. Further, less penetration of technologies like drip irrigation and other forms of micro-irrigation also leads to inefficient water utilization.
    • Improper and Unsustainable implementations of Watershed Development Programs
    • Water pollution – India ranks 120th among 122 countries in a global water quality index.
    • Climate Change – The global temperature is already higher by more than 1 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial era. This has also contributed in the spell of drought in India. For instance, drought continued in India post 2016 despite a change from El-Nino conditions due to climate change.

Impacts of Droughts in India:

• For a developing country like India where more than 50% of the population is still dependent on agriculture, the drought comes as a bane. The negative impact of drought can be summed up under the following heads.

i. Physical – Geographical-Environmental Impact:

• • Meteorological drought adversely affects the recharge of soil moisture, surface runoffs and ground water. Rivers, lakes, ponds etc. tend to dry up.
  • Exacerbates ground water extraction and depletion
  • Increases water and soil pollution – for instance deeper borewell have higher chances of arsenic and fluoride contamination.

ii. Economic Impact: According to MoEF&CC – desertification, land degradation and drought cost India nearly 2.5% of GDP in 2014-15.
iii. Impact on Agriculture – Large percentage of agriculture rain dependent -> reduction in agri output

• • shortage of food and other agri-produce -> inflation
  • Reduced farmers income -> increased farmer distress -> increased farmer suicide

iv. Other Economic and Social Impacts

• Water Security: Scarcity of drinking water -> Health issues
• Energy supply may get impacted if the country increases its dependency on hydropower. (Note: India gets 17% of its electricity from Hydropower)
• Loss of livelihood -> unemployment -> Poverty -> Distress migration to cities, sale of property & livestock
• Slowing down of secondary and tertiary activities due to fall in agricultural production and decline in purchasing power.
• Increasing inequality -> Drought hampers weaker section of society including farmers, landless workers, weavers, artisans etc.
• Social stress and tension, disruption of social institutions and increase in social crime
  • Growth in superstition, increasing belief in supernatural powers etc.

v. Increased inter-state and International river water dispute –
• e.g. the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu exacerbated during
less rainfall year.
• E.g. the disputes between India and China for the water distribution of 10 major rivers
originating in Tibet

How is Drought Declared in India

• According to the Manual for Drought Management 2016 – two factors are considered for
  drought:
  i. The extent of rainfall deviation (depreciation)
  ii. The consequent dry spell
• Four indicators are used to assess the extent of drought
  • Agriculture, Remote Sensing, Soil Moisture and Hydrology
  • Each impact indicator has various levels of severity
• For severely drought-hit – at least 3 of the four indicators must indicate drought
• For Moderate drought-hit – at least 2 (in addition to rainfall) must check out
• If only one indicator (in addition to rainfall) checks out, the area is not considered to be drought affected.
• Impact of Drought Declaration
  • In case of severe category of drought, assistance can be got from National Disaster
    Response Fund for mitigation and relief.
• Concerns of States
  • States are unhappy with the recent drought manual as it has made it difficult to establish severity of drought and would drastically reduce assistance from the Centre’s National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).
  • Sometimes only 10-20% of the state’s area is under drought. In such cases Center has overlooked the severity of drought in a limited area and the state gets no assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund.

Drought Relief Measures / Coping with droughts

Management of drought has now been outlined in much elaborate manner in the drought manual issued by the ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation.

• Drought Monitoring: Continuously monitoring rainfall situation and the available water in various lakes, rivers, tanks etc. This will help us to plan better for the impending drought scenario.
• Contingency Crop Planning: All the stakeholders need to prepare the contingency crop plan and disseminate it among farmers with the help to support agencies, mentioned below. The  alternative crop planning involves choosing suitable crops and/ or crop varieties, alternative crop strategies, mid season’s corrections and crop life saving measures.
• Relief Employment: The most important relief component is the generation of employment provision during drought period. Extension of MGNREGA, Food for Work program of various states etc. can play a big role in relief employment.
• Water Resource Management – One of the most critical task of relief operations – measures such as augmentation of water supply, rationing of water use, and efficient utilization and management of water resources, in both urban and rural areas
• Food Security is one of the most important objective of drought management. It is provided through food for work programs etc.
• Relief through tax waivers and concessions
• Cattle Camp and Fodder Supply: State governments need to support their farmers in protecting their cattle population during a drought situation by providing necessary assistance for fodder, feed, and cattle health. During the drought situation, every measure needs to be taken to save useful cattle. If the cattle wealth is depleted recovery will be slow.
• Health and Hygiene: During drought health issues related to contamination of water and spread of infection among workers of public work program ahs been seen. Health relief is also an important component of drought relief.
• Institutional Response
  • Drought management requires a strong institutional structure to monitor and provide a timely response to drought. While it is primarily the responsibility of the state government to manage drought, the central government also plays an important role in monitoring drought and providing financial assistance to the states.
  • The district administration headed by the collector plays the most critical role in responding to drought on the ground. At the central level, the ministry of Agriculture is the department responsible for drought monitoring and management.
• Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions
  • It is necessary to include PRIs in all the operations as they are more connected to ground and have better understanding of the regional problems.
• Information management and Media Coordination
  • The Central and State governments should provide information on all aspects of drought to people and media. It is necessary to inform the people about the severity and impact of drought and the measures being taken to alleviate the drought situation.

Some Limitations of Drought Management in India

• • Drought management continues to be inadequately addressed in India due to improper planning and coordination between different functioning units and poor implementation at the ground level.
    • There is a lack of focus on long term sustainability and livelihood issues and quick fix solutions are resorted too
  • The process of declaration of drought has been made long and difficult by the drought manual issued by central government in 2016.
    • This prevents timely relief measures like drinking water supply, subsidized diesel and electricity for irrigation, increasing number of days of work under MGNREGA etc.

Way Forward

1. Scientific mapping of Drought Prone areas
2. A system of Early Warning at least in drought-prone areas
3. Robust methodology for Drought declaration
4. Holistic and Sustainable Development of Watershed with community participation.
5. Efficient utilization of water in Agriculture – since it accounts for 80% of India’s water use

• Awareness programs regarding the efficient use of water
• Using advanced improved methods of irrigation like micro-irrigation – sprinkler and drip irrigation.
• Change in cropping pattern.
  • Awareness
  • Reform in MSP regime – to cover more millets, pulses, oilseeds etc.
• Rationalize electricity charges for farmers – to prevent overuse and overexploitation of ground water.

6. Preservation of Rain water in both Urban and Rural Areas – Rainwater harvesting, Recycling of
treated water.

• Improve and Implement building codes to promote water conservation and rainwater
  harvesting.

7. Afforestation

• It ensures water retaining capacity of the soil and also increases the chances of rainfall.

8. Paris Agreement Targets

• National Action Plan on Climate Change and State Action Plan on Climate Change needs
  to get into implementation mode very quickly.