29 Disaster Management for Droughts

Dr. Lubna Siddiqui

Objectives

• To understand the phenomenon of droughts
• To develop a conceptual understanding of the factors contributing to repeated droughts in India
• To introduce different measures undertaken to prevent the occurrence and mitigate the impacts of droughts.

     Rationale

Drought is one of the most widespread hazards in India affecting a significant number of population. Its known as slow onset or creeping disasters affecting lives and livelihoods of esp. farming communities. This chapter introduces droughts, explores the reasons for droughts and examines how the occurrence and impacts of droughts can be minimized.

Unit 1 – Introduction

   Drought is a slow onset disaster, which gradually evolves over months and years due to complex interactions of environmental and anthropogenic factors. The impact of drought is also far-fetched and can last for years. Due to its contextual nature, the prevention and mitigation of drought also requires contextual solutions and no one solution fit for all approaches can be undertaken for the purpose.

Reasons of Droughts

Typically, the reason behind drought is considered to be prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall leading to shortage of water. But low rainfall is not the only contributing factor. Based on the causative agent the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had classified drought in four broad categories as under –

1. Meteorological Drought over an area is defined as a situation when the seasonal rainfall received over an area is less than 75% of its long term average (LTA) value. It is further classified as “moderate drought” if the rainfall deficit is between 26-50% and “severe drought” when the deficit exceeds 50% of the normal.

Major causes of meteorological droughts include, lean monsoon, late monsoon, untimely monsoon, prolonged break between two spells.

2. Hydrological Drought can be defined as the period during which the stream flows are inadequate to supply established use of water under a given water management system.

Major causes of hydrological drought include drying up of surface water resources, anthropogenic activities leading to disruption of streams and water bodies, diversion of water for commercial purposes in upstream areas, deforestation, over exploitation of ground water etc.

3. Agricultural Drought occurs when available soil moisture is inadequate for healthy crop growth and cause extreme stress and wilting. It is to be noted that agricultural drought is relative, as drought condition for rice cultivation is different than the drought condition for millet cultivation.

4. Socio Economic Drought occurs as a result of the above three types. Abnormal water shortage affects all aspects of established economy of a region. This in turn adversely affects the social fabric of the society creating unemployment, migration, discontent and various other problems in the society.

Apart from the above types, there can be one more category, Ecological Drought that is considered as a condition where environmental degradation reduces the productivity of the natural eco system significantly.

In many cases more than one reason contribute to the emergence of droughts.

Famines

Famines and droughts are often interlinked though they are two distinct phenomena, often occurring in a cause effect relationship, with famine succeeding a prolonged drought period. Famine is a severe scenario where extreme scarcity of food is experienced leading to mass malnutrition, starvation, increased mortality and epidemic scare. It may result from droughts leading to crop failure, low food availability or poor access to food. But more often, rather than actual food scarcity, socio economic complexities may also plays major role in the occurrence of famines.

    Desertification

It is a condition which often occurs as a result of extreme soil water deficit. It results in the degradation of land, loss of water bodies, flora and fauna. Citing an example, Sahel region in Africa is characterized by high temperature, hot climate and very low rainfall which created massive desertification loosing significant amount of productive land to deserts. This has affected about 6 million citizens residing in the area. (UNC, 2016)

Impacts of droughts

Drought impacts are often multifaceted and non-linear due to the complexities associated with their occurrence. They can be classified into three major categories-

1. Economic impacts – These include the aspects which directly or indirectly impact the well-being of a person of the society. The main factors of economic impacts are :

Reduced agricultural production leading to reduced harvest and thereby reduction in the earning

Increased cost of farm maintenance due to the additional costs of water provisions and other resources to the farm products (including the reduced usage of fertilizers/ chemicals leading to lesser output)

Loss of livelihood for marginal farm workers

Increasing cost of maintaining livestock due to shortage of fodder and drinking water. Often livestocks are sold to earn extra income during lean months or drought situations.

Loss in income of people related indirectly to agricultural practices like agricultural transporters, pesticide and fertilizers retailer etc.

Increase in the price of food production due to shortage of supply.

Economic impacts on other industries dependent on water resources like hydro-electric generation companies, waterways operators and transporters, tour operators etc.

Unpaid loans, provision of relief to the affected and the subsequent burden on government exchequer.

In severe cases, export is affected significantly and increasing dependency on external countries for food aid or import maybe required endangering the food sovereignty of a nation.

Flow of taxes.

2. Social Impacts

Drought has serious impacts on health and social safety. Lack of water resources often leads to gradual conditions of water deficit and in its extreme form results in long drawn conflicts. It also affects psychosocial well-being significantly. The major impacts of droughts include:

Nutritional concerns due to poor quality diet and allied health problems, loss of human lives in the extreme scenario.

Increasing outmigration in search of alternate jobs to urban areas, which in turn increase the vulnerability of migrants as they settle/ squat in risky areas/ unhygienic conditions.

Increasing child drop-out rates and child labor.

Early marriage of daughters to reduce financial burden and the linking of non-marriage of daughters to the drought occurrence

Increased stress and anxiety resulting in increasing incidences of farmer suicide

Conflicts over water resources

3. Environmental impacts

The most severe impact of drought is upon the environmental resources. Often droughts result in extensive damage to flora and fauna of a region. The significant impacts include:

Increased animal attacks in farm areas due to lack of food in their own habitats Loss or destruction of fishes and aquatic organisms

Lack of adequate food and drinking water in forests and in extreme cases resulting in loss of wildlife

Migration of wild animals thereby increasing human-animal conflicts Weak and diseased animals

Loss of wetlands and increasing incidences of wildfires Degradation of soil quality and soil productivity

Increased erosion and desertification rates

These direct impacts have multiplier effect and results in the indirect impacts that are often diffuse and complicated to be gauged appropriately.

Unit 2 – Global Scenario of Droughts

Brief History

In the historical past, droughts and famines have often been interlinked and the terms have been used synonymously. Famines have been experienced in almost all the continents. One of the earliest famines recorded was in ancient Rome in 441 BC. Famines are considered as one of the probable reasons behind the fall of the Mayan civilization of Meso America (Mexico and Central America) in 800 – 1000 AD. Other significant famines include Famine of France in 1097, Russian Famine of 1601 –03, Great Bengal Famine of 1770, Finnish Famine of 1866 etc. Famines persisted across centuries but it gained significant international attention due to famines in Europe and Asia during 19th and 20th century. The mortality rates due to famines dropped from 1970s as the global initiatives for reducing famines bore results. Currently African area is still affected by famines. The 2011 East Africa Drought resulted in famine in certain parts of Somalia. As of 2017, the threat of famine is looming large over the east African nations of Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia.

India and Droughts

On account of dependence over monsoonal rainfall, crop failure cases have been mostly reported from different parts of India. As per the rough estimates about 16 percent of the total geographical areas of India are drought prone and approximately 50 million people are annually affected by droughts. About 68 percent of the total sown area of the country is drought prone; which amounts to 329 million hectares. The Deccan plateau regions and the Ghats, the arid regions of Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and semi arid regions of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab etc. are predominantly drought prone. It is also significant to note that droughts in India are having seasonal characteristics. Drought conditions often arise due to prolonged dry spells across years. For instance, from 1985 – 87 there was progressive lack of rainfall which finally resulted in drought in 1987. Surprisingly, even in areas which receive significant rainfall, lately droughts have been observed, for instance Palakkad and Thrissur districts of Kerala in 2017.

In the past, famine incidents have been very common, recurring often at a regular interval. There were around 14 famines in India between 11th and 17th centuries (Bhatia, 1985). For example, during the great famines in India in the year 1022–1033 the entire provinces were depopulated. Famine in Deccan killed at least two million people in 1702–1704. The famines during the earlier period were highly localized. During the British era, approximately 25 major famines occurred across India. The first Bengal famine of 1770 is estimated to have taken around 10 million lives which equaled one third of the population of Bengal. In the famines of 1876-78 and 1899-1900 again millions perished. The last major famine occurred in 1943 during the World war killing an estimated 2.1million.

The famines were resulted due to the lack of rainfall and poor economic and administrative policies of the colonial rulers. Change from traditional subsistence cropping, levying heavy taxation, incompetent distribution system and other issues led to increased price of food which resulted in the tragic drought incidents of 19th century.

Unit 3 – Droughts –Institutional Mechanism

Historical background

Traditionally a relief-based approach was followed in India for addressing drought.

The dismal attention paid by the British government during initial famines was highly criticized. In 1880, the Famine Commission was set up as the first response measure undertaken by Britishers to address the famines.

The Famine code was developed but it failed to be efficient due to stringent guidelines and requirements which often required one to wait till the drought actually occurs to take any action. It was later updated and renamed as the Scarcity Manual in the independent India. Often this is recognized as the first institutional attempt for  management of disasters.

Existing Institutional Mechanism to address Droughts in India

The Nodal Department to address drought in India is the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. The other institutional bodies functioning in the sector are NDMA, NIDM, SDMA, DDMA, IMD etc.

Two significant guidelines that were released by the Indian government to address droughts are:

Manual for Drought Management, 2009 by the DAC NDMA guidelines on the Management of Droughts

Fig – Drought Management Strategy

   (Source – Drought Management, Ministry of Agriculture)

    The key components of the guidelines are as follows:

Drought Monitoring is carried out through different institutions which include Agricultural Meteorology Division, Drought Research Unit, National Centre for medium range weather forecasting and other institutes under IMD, Ministry of Earth sciences, Crop Weather Watch Group etc. Multiple indices are used for drought monitoring which include Standardized Precipitation Index, Palmer Drought Severity Index, Crop Moisture Index, Surface Water Supply Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index etc.

Drought Declaration initiates the formal government response to drought situation Based on drought declaration, the relief assistance and other supports are provided to the affected people.

Traditionally, the Revenue department heads, (mainly the Collector) recommends declaration of drought based on the crop production inputs obtained from revenue dept. officials present in the drought affected areas (typically villages). The final data on crop production is usually available in the month of December for Kharif crop and in March for Rabi crop.

There are four criteria based on which Drought Declaration is done:

a.      Rainfall Deficiency

b.     Area under Sowing

c.      Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

d.     Moisture Adequacy Index

The other factors under consideration are:

Water supply status

Employment demand / unusual outmigration

Fodder supply status, price in the current situation and price in normal conditions

Agricultural and non-agricultural wage rates in the current situation compared to price in normal conditions

Supply of food grains and essential commodities in the current situation compared to price in normal conditions

Drought Response and Relief

Once the drought declaration is done, the drought response and relief process takes over . Due to the multifaceted nature of droughts, the response involves an amalgamation of different activities from different but interlinked sectors and involved several agencies. The measures typically employed include:

1. Contingency Crop Planning – It aims to provide other cropping options to farmers ,which are drought resistant. It also provides alternate cropping strategies, mid-season correction and crop life saving measures.

2. Relief Employment – Due to drought induced employment loss, the government arranges for relief employment programmes with cash and food grain assistance.

3. Water resource management/Alternate sourcing of water – This includes diversified measures for ensuring the availability of and access to water. Measures such as augmentation of water supply, rationing water use, efficient utilization and management of water resources are key elements under this initiative.

4. Food Security – To maintain the food security status, special provisions to provide food as well as checks and balances to ensure nutrition aspects of food are introduced. Often wages in the employment programmes are paid in the form of food-grains to ensure availability and access to food and also minimize any chances of inflation.

5. Gratuitous Assistance – This is considered as the assistance in the form of cash or food grains to people who might not be able to participate in the relief employment programmes or who are in the category of dependents.

6. Relief through Tax Waivers and Concessions–The objective of this kind of assistance is to help people meet their basic entitlements. The tax waiver and concession amounts are decided based on the needs of the affected and the fiscal implications of such a relief to the government.

7. Cattle camps and Fodder supply – Through such interventions, the government provides necessary assistance to farmer in protecting their cattle by providing necessary assistance for their fodder, feed and health. This is done to discourage distress selling of cattle which is an important asset to farmers.

8. Health and Hygiene–This kind of assistance helps maintain the health and hygiene of the affected. It includes measures to improve drinking water quality, disinfect drinking water sources, conducting regular surveillance etc in drought affected area.

9. Financing Relief Expenditure–The ministry of Finance releases funding from both CRF and NCCF to affected states based on set guidelines. This fund is utilized to perform the different activities and provide financial assistance to the affected.

10. Information Management and Media Coordination – This plays a crucial role in drought management and information dissemination to the affected community.

Drought Prevention and Mitigation Measures

Multiple measures are proposed to mitigate and prevent the impact of droughts which include but are not limited to:

Water Harvesting and Conservation – Includes both technical and traditional methods. Technical processes include development of percolation tanks, Injection wells, farm ponds, contour trenching etc. Traditional methods include promotion of Tankas, Kunds, Baolls, Spring water harvesting etc.

Utilization of Water Saving Technologies – Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation System

Long Term Irrigation Management Afforestation

Crop Insurance

Community Participation in Drought Mitigation

o   Build on micro level experiences

o   Innovate community based institutions

o   Organize community based consultations through gram sabha o Strengthen self-help groups

o Empowering Panchayati Raj Institutions Adaptation to Climate Variability

Drought mitigation programmes are currently underway that includes-

The National Rainfed Area Authority- aims to address the issue of drought in the long term perspective.

Drought Prone areas Programme

     Desert Development Programme

Integrated Watershed Management Programme

Capacity Building Measures –The NDMA guidelines provide detailed inputs on national training and capacity building measures for drought management. It suggests training in drought management through identification of training needs, training of trainers, development of training manuals, training of professionals, strengthening training and research institutes etc. Apart from such institutional measures, it also focuses on developing community awareness, documentation and community participation for holistic development of capacity utilizing a bottom up approach.

Marathwada Case Study-

To illustrate the functioning of the guidelines mentioned above, the governmental intervention in Marathwada region is taken up as a case study.

The Marathwada agrarian crisis is an ongoing drought scenario in which extensive area of Maharashtra along with parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is affected. Both climatic and socio-economic factors are attributed to the ongoing crisis. Along with below average rainfall, changes in the cropping pattern, providing more importance to water intensive cash crops like sugarcane and grapes is primarily blamed for the crisis. Allocation of more water to cash crops depriving traditional water drought resistant crops, indiscriminate usage of limited surface water and ground water, depletion of the ground water level, large scale diversion of water for industrial purposes have resulted in extreme shortage of water.

To address the ongoing crisis, multi-pronged strategy has been utilized by the state government in association with non-governmental agencies. Some of the key strategies include-

Marketing system and APMC–To minimize better provide support systems to the agriculturalists and minimize the impact of middlemen, marketing systems are set up. In such markets, the minimum support price for the product is guaranteed, which helps the farmers in not getting underpaid.

ATMA and Farmer Producing Company – The main functions of an institution like

ATMA (in collaboration with the agricultural department) is to provide technological support, seeds, fertilizers and tools and instruments for mechanization of farming at subsidized rates, organize demonstrations and training programs. It also aims to facilitate formation of farmer producing companies of 15 – 20 members based on common farming practices. These FPCs will function as a collective unit. It will give the farmers better bargaining power in terms of sale of products and purchase of raw materials. Also it will lower transport and allied expenses and facilitate in collectiv training and skills development program. Also demonstrations are arranged for farmers where a particular way of farming is done and the profits in terms of yields were shown to motivate farmers in cultivating the same crops the same way. Promotion of drought resistant crop cultivation, mixed crop cultivation and required technologies are being promoted through such initiative.

Crop Insurance – Crop Insurance is being promoted as one of the most important risk transfer mechanism.

JalayuktaShivar– This is an integrated water resource management project implemented by the government. Under the umbrella of the project, deepening and widening of streams, construction of cement and earthen stop dams, work on nullahs and digging of farm ponds etc. are under progress.

Ground water regulation – Drying of borewells is a serious concern. Government circulars on borewell depth have been issued to address this issue.

Benefits provided through PDS system and other food security schemes in drought affected area – As the area is drought affected, extra provisions under PDS system for ration card holders have been arranged which is very helpful. Mid-day meal scheme is also functional in most areas to maintain nutritional status among children.

MGNREGA and Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) – In most of the villages, MGNREGA and EGS schemes are helping in providing economic support to deal with the agrarian crisis. The registered people are provided employment for certain duration of time every year guaranteeing the income. Also, utilizing MGNREGA and EGS, administration is developing water resources and implementing mechanisms to improve drought resilience. This is merged with the Jalayukta Shivar scheme which aims at integrated management of water resources.

Seed, fertilizer and other subsidies – Seeds, fertilizers and tools are available at subsidized rates under various schemes and there is no upper limit on the amount that can be requested.

Compensation and Aid system – Government initiated compensations and aids to the affected have been issued. Based on the official criteria, on the loss of a specified portion of agricultural produce, compensation is provided by the government after inspection by ground staff.

Cattle camps –Cattle camps are set up in many areas in the affected region to assist the affected farmers maintain their livestock. To maintain the cattle camps, government provides subsidies to the cattle camp owners to arrange for fodder and other provisions for the cattle. The farmers can shelter their livestock in the cattle camps during the drought period.

Mental Health interventions–Due to the large number of suicide incidences, the state government has launched integrated mental health interventions under the flagship of Prerana Project. Under the project, people affected by mental health stressors are addressed and provided help. Asha workers in different villages act as Prerana workers. The guidelines for a Prerana workers include:

Identification of farmers displaying symptoms of depression and anxiety Provide guidance on how to address the stressors

Steps to avoid people from committing suicide

When the village level Prerana worker is unable to address the issues, the person is directed to the sub-center where further care is provided to the individual. In cases where the issue cannot be addressed at the subcenter level, it is forwarded to the PHC and forward depending on the severity of the case. Additionally schemes to provide health care and prevent economic distress occurring from health care expenses are introduced. Drug de-addiction programs are also introduced to promote well-being of the farmers. Thus utilizing multiple social schemes and dedicated mental health intervention is developed to provide psychosocial support in the affected region.

NGOS – Many NGOs have intervened to address the issue by promoting water resource management techniques and awareness generation. Through an effective partnership with governmental and state agencies, the NGOs are playing a significant role in bringing attention as well as addressing the issue.

Summary

• Drought is a slow onset disaster which evolves over months and years.
• There are both environmental and anthropogenic factors causing droughts .
• Four broad categories of droughts are – Meteorological Drought, Hydrological Drought, Agricultural Drought and Socio Economic Drought
• Famine is a severe scenario where extreme scarcity of food is experienced leading to mass malnutrition, starvation and increased mortality and epidemic scare.
• Desertification results in extensive degradation of productive lands, loss of water bodies, flora and fauna
• Drought impacts are of social, economic and environmental in nature.
• Drought occurred in almost all parts of the world till early twentieth century.
• India is highly prone to drought due to dependence on monsoon rains for agriculture
• Famine Commission formed in 1880 was the first formal initiative for drought management
• The nodal department for drought management is Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India
• The Revenue department of the affected states recommend the declaration of Drought based on crop production inputs
• Four criteria based on which Drought Declaration is done are:

   a. Rainfall Deficiency

b. Area under Sowing

c. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

d. Moisture Adequacy Index

• Drought declaration initiates the drought response and relief process

References

• Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare. (2016). Manual for Dought Management. New Delhi: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare.
• Mohita, N. (n.d.). 7 main type of drought, Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/drought/7-main-types-of-drought-recognized-in-india-explained/14048/
• National Drought Mitigation Center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/TypesofDrought.aspx
• NDMA. (2010). National Disaster Management Guidelines – Management of Drought. New Delhi: NDMA.
• SANDRP. (2015, October 2). SANDRP. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from SANDRP: https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/state-says-59-9-rainfall-imd-says-73-highlights-and-discrepancies-of-maharashtras-monsoon-2015/
• Srivastava, H.C (1968), The History of Indian Famines from 1858–1918, Sri Ram Mehra and Co., Agra
• “United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: Issues and Challenges”. E-International Relations. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
• UNISDR. (2009). Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.