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Situation Report on Tharparkar Drought

Submitted by:Ammara yousaf Mcmf13a20Um-e-kalsoom Mcmf13m07Iqra Tariq Mcmf13m15Saroosh Akhtar Mcmf13a17Nazish Habib Mcmf13m01

All the praises are for ALMIGHTY ALLAH whose uniqueness, oneness and wholeness are absolute. Who gave us enough courage, knowledge and ability to accomplish this Article.

All respects are for His Holy Prophet Hazrat MuhammadWho enabled us to recognize oneness of our Creator.

Our Parents whos rising gave us a compassionate heart.We then further pay our gratitude to Sir Azeem whose cooperation on every step of this remarkable task is highly appreciable. Without his cooperation it was not possible to complete this task.

Tharparkar desert in Sindh is the largest desert of Pakistan and the 18 largest in the world with an area of 22000 square Kilometers. The population of Tharparkar is 1.5 million. This is only district in Pakistan where more than 50% of population is Hindus. The government has no conducted a proper census after 1998 although analyst say that the population of Hindus in this district is near 0.8 million. Tharparkar district is divided into five tehsils, nangararkal, Chachro, diplo and Mitthi, Islamkot with it headquarter in Mitthi city. There are about 2400 villages in district Tharparkar, which are populated with Dalit communities. The land in Tharparkar is highly fertile but unfortunately most of it is desert, so that production of crops depends on rains during summer rain fall from mid-June to mid-august each year.

During drought like situation in Tharparkar the majority of people in agriculture workforce eat meals of the red pepper or onion and sometimes rabri. Their life is very simple during election they do not know how to vote and usually casted their vote on the direction of their mukhya (village chief). The literacy rate is low. Education of the children is neglected and because lack of finance most children pulled out of school after a few year anyway.

Pakistan is 3rd largest milk producing country in the world, 4th largest producing country in world cotton production, 5th largest sugarcane producing country in the world. It is largest country in the world coal reserve. We only produce 0.2% of the electricity from it.A single that coal reserve of Sindh is about 850 Trillion cubic feet. Pakistan is one of the world largest producers & suppliers of the following according to the different sources: for example food & agriculture, organization of the united nation and FAOSTAT given here with rankingChickpea (3rd) Kinnow (6th)Apricot (6th) Mango (4th)Cotton (4th) wheat (7th)Milk (5th) Rice (4th)Date palm (5th) Sugarcane (5th)Onion (7th)Pakistan ranks eight worldwide in form output, according to GDP sector composition list of countries. Pakistan government 5th largest copper reserves and also large coal reserve. Where all the finance goes either government personal account, it will effect to decrease the unemployment in Pakistan and it will help to decrease the poverty in Pakistan. Pakistan government is playing with feeling of nation. Even though the drought in Thar has been ongoing for ten year, the government has not considered this serious issue and problem has been growing each year. Peoples of Tharparkar support PPP because they remember the sacrifice of the Bhutto family.Governments may rationally fail to act against famines when the political costs of action are higher than the political costs of inaction. A famous observation goes: Starvation is a characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not a characteristic of there being not enough food to eat. It follows that food shortages are not a necessary condition for the outbreak of famines. What really matters are entitlements and control over food and non-food commodities, not food availability as such. Famines occur when groups of individuals experience entitlement collapse and are no longer able to buy sufficient amounts of food.

Sindh minister of information, archives and local Government Sharjeel Memon said that Pakistan people party parliamentarian and Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali shah were personally monitoring the situation of Tharparkar and PPP and its provisional Government would not leave the famine affected people of Tharparkar alone in this tragic condition. TheMinisteralso claimed that only 69 children died in Tharparkar during past 4 months but cause of their deaths was not famine butpneumonia. A team ofdoctorsandparamedicshad already started catering to the people of Tharparkar for their needs ofmedical careand a shipment of medicines of urgent needs had also been supplied to thehealthcare facilitiesin the areas. He said that there were 25 children undermedical careand they were all out of danger and thestock ofrequired medicines was also available in thosehospitals. He claimed that number of deaths of children as reported was not true but the actual number of deaths was 26 in December 2013, 18 in January, 23 in February and 3 in March 2014. Majority of children had died of pneumoniaand other infections and again majority of infants were fateful to thepneumoniaand infection Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah here on Monday denied governments negligence as well as reports that a large number of children died due to malnutrition in drought-hit Tharparkar district. In his address in Sindh assembly, CM Sindh said that not even a single child or a person died of hunger in Thar adding that they died because of poverty. "Can anybody name even a single person? Provide me details if there are any, asserted the CM. Shah claimed that the PPP-led Sindh government had taken all-out measures for famine-hit Thar. We did whatever we could We appointed male and female doctors in government hospitals in far-flung areas of Tharparkar, Shah said. Tharparkar Mitthi town, he said, could be compared to any developed city of Sindh. We have announced an aid package for Thar, constructed roads and infrastructures there and a scheme of PRs 2 billion will be completed this year, Shah said. More than 80 reverse osmosis plants are functional in Thar. Its not an easy task to make food arrangements for 1.6 million people The lawmakers must go there and witness the situation themselves before criticizing the government he said. The Chief Minister said a committee of lawmakers could be formed to investigate reports of governments negligence in taking measures with respect to the situation in Tharparkar. We will tender apology if our laxity is proved, he promisedFamine is ostensibly preventable through government action and yet some famines still kill. Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal Tarar has said that the federal government is looking to devise a five to ten-year plan to deal with the famine in the Thar region of Sindh.If certain politicians were solely to blame for the calamity it could very easily be argued that this is a group of politicians that we neglect at our peril. This would be a mistake because in a sense the PPPs approach perfectly mirrors the way in which it is governing the province. Whilst people were dying in remote parts of Tharparkar or on the streets and in crowded hospitals in Mitthi, most of the important discussions on the issue took place in London

The drought is not only the reason for the recent death observers say that they had come about as a result of endemic poverty exacerbated.Authorities have been busy dispensing food aid and sending medics to attend to the sick followingvisits by Prime Minister Nawaz SharifandBilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who leads the Pakistan People's Party which rules the province. But observers say the relief work fails to address the root causes of such disasters and warn they are likely to be repeated. A drought in the desert in 2000 killed 90 per cent of the livestock. Sindh Government is finalizing the water issue in Tharparkar as it hascompleted installation of 150 reverse osmosiswater filterplants inTharparkar, Pakistan Tribereported. Water issues and dying people due to thirst in Tharparkar has become the headline for the last couple of months as every passing day infants are dying due to less food, medicine clean water. Discussing the issue and presiding the meeting in CM house Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah Chief Minister of Sindh said that The largest reverse osmosis (RO) plant of Asia having capacity to filter two million gallons per day will be inaugurated by former president Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday.Every day we see in different newspapers reports regarding the present situation in Thar. Even the chairperson of ruling party in the province has taken notice of the situation. In such circumstances rather than clearing and politicizing the issue, the government should formed a committee including MPA from all political parties to probe the issue so that such incidents are not repeated in future Situation report Tharparkar DroughtPopulation affected 1100,000 (souls)(projected)Area affected 19638 sq.km 7582 sq. MileNo. Of people migrate 150000 (mostly koli & bheel community migrate every year during wheatHarvest season along with large cattle heads)Relife provides Safar 60000 wheat bags (100kg)No. Of deathsCauses of death birth Asphyxia, NNS, FTT, VSD, caspingNo. Of cattle heads 2011 animals As per report more than 257 children have die due to malnutrition and disease in Tharparkar district soon after it was reported in the media NGO and government officials reached there to prevent further losses. Each year hundreds of social development is initiated in Tharparkar with the donations from international development group but no program is properly implemented and become to prey to corruption.So that issue of unemployment is lack of education and the health continue to grow.

Tharparkar is considered the most backward area of Pakistan so that the fund from international donors is in million dollars. The government issued budgets of development, but it almost all goes in account of corrupt leaders and not reached to affected people Making smaller dams to stop water wastage during rain can also stop the need of migration and prevent drought the Tharparkar. The government and organization must create the economic resources for the people of the area to find the proper employment and create the economic possibilities for them to assist a formal and permanent life in Tharparkar so they can educate their children. They can make Thar--parkar peacefully, heavenly place, it has need to become potential

Situation Report on Tharparkar UOS GRW campus