{"id":3043,"date":"2018-06-02T04:45:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T04:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csrskabul.com\/en\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2018-06-04T04:49:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T04:49:20","slug":"drought-another-challenging-threat-for-afghans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csrsaf.org\/en\/?p=3043","title":{"rendered":"Drought; another Challenging Threat for Afghans"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Zia ul Islam Shirani<\/strong> \\ CSRS<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, Drought is another big challenge in the war-torn Afghanistan that, after insecurity and wars, has put the life of millions of Afghans at risk.  <\/span><\/p>\n

In its latest report, The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has indicated that a drought is affecting two out of three provinces across Afghanistan with more than two million people expected to become severely food insecure. [1]<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Last week President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani presided over the meeting on countering drought and its consequences which was attended by international donor agencies representatives where he thanked their efforts and emphasized on their assistance to drought affected areas. Meanwhile UNAMA chief Yamamoto assured his agency\u2019s cooperation with Afghan government in this regard.[2]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The overall impact of Climate Changes and, particularly, of Drought in Afghanistan and the present situation, reasons behind and ways out are analyzed here.   <\/span><\/p>\n

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Drought in Afghanistan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Local drought is being arrived in different parts of the country once in every 3 to 5 years; however, zone-level drought is being arrived once in every 9 to 11 years and national-level drought is being arrived once in every 20 to 30 years, according to Asian Development Bank.    <\/span><\/p>\n

If we consider the last two decades, it is for the fifth time that Afghanistan faced drought. During Civil War, Afghanistan faced long-lasting drought in 1995 which became out from it due to continuous precipitation in 2002 and 2003. Afghanistan, once again, faced drought in 2008, 2010 and 2012 which has a negative impact of agricultural products, particularly, the wheat crops. Overall, this situation also put an impact on Afghan economic growth as well. For example, the growth of agriculture sector in Afghanistan was 21 percent in 2008; however this number increased to 51 percent in 2009 which had a positive impact of the country\u2019s economic growth.         <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the World Bank, approximately 6.5 million people have been affected by drought in Afghanistan since 2002 which does not included the present number of people affected by drought. The World Bank also expects that Afghanistan will suffer a loss of 3 Billion USD in agricultural field if severe drought is arrived in this country. [3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Present Drought and its Impacts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The government and international agencies share concerns over the ongoing drought in Afghanistan since last three weeks. According to the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), the drought is being divided into three categories with regards to its level of threat: <\/span><\/p>\n

There are 15 provinces in the first category (Jawzjan, Badghis, Faryab, Ghor, Uruzgan, Zabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Herat, Farah and Nimroz); the second category contains 6 provinces (Maidan Wardak, Logar, Takhar, Paktia, Nuristan and Sari Pul) and the third category encloses 13 provinces (Ghazni, Daikundi, Bamyan, Kapisa, Parwan, Panjshir, Kabul, Badakhshan, Laghman, Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost). [4]<\/a>     <\/span><\/p>\n

Approximately, 2 million people have been faced hunger due to drought in these provinces where, for now, 13 million people have encounter lack of adequate food, and thus, 500 Million USD is needed for tackling this threat and providing assistance to the affected persons.   <\/span><\/p>\n

There are concerns that the country\u2019s economic situation will also be impacted by the ongoing drought. Because the country\u2019s economy, to a large extent, is relied on agriculture and it assumed that the wheat production will be decreased by 2.5 million tons from that of 4.2 million tons. Additionally, there is a presumption of increasing internal displacement which has got negative impact of the country\u2019s economy.       <\/span><\/p>\n

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Reasons behind drought in Afghanistan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n