Thiruvananthapuram:The Kerala government on Tuesday decided to declare nine of its 14 districts as drought-hit in view of scarcity of rains, shortage of surface and ground water and intrusion of saline water.
A meeting of the state disaster management authority presided over by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to declare the districts of Kannur, Alappuzha, Idukki, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Waynad as drought-hit, an official release said.
The official declaration in this regard would be made by the state relief commissioner, it said.
Sunil Kumar and chief secretary Paul Antony were among those who took part in the meeting.
It was also decided at the meeting that immediate steps would be taken for distribution of drinking water through tankers and kiosks to tide over the drought situation, the release added.
According to the Central Meteorological Department, there was shortfall of rain during the 2017 North-East monsoon that sets in during October-December.
In the hilly Idukki district, presently there was no drought situation.
However, it had been included in the list of drought-hit as the main sources of water were expected to dry up as summer intensifies, the release added.
First Published: Tue, Mar 27 2018.
03 17 PM IST

SA’s problems — and Cape Town’s in particular — are not unique.
By comparison, the Cape Town metropolitan region is home to about 4-million people and receives an average annual rainfall of 500mm.
In 2014, the city got 511mm of rain.
All of these regions have faced or continue to face severe droughts.
Gauteng’s good rains may have led to the problems in Cape Town in a way.
The lack of water in Cape Town is self-inflicted.
If Eskom defaults and hence fails to produce electricity, the desalination plants will stop working.
We need politicians who will listen to and understand sound engineering, technical, economic and social advice that can be balanced with the political agenda.
Cape Town’s crisis may teach us all humility.
It may teach our partisan politicians humility if governing and opposition parties need to work together to save 3.7-million people.

In recent years drought in what is one of the most water-stressed regions of the world has caused severe damage to the economies of Morocco and neighbouring North African states.
In 2017 water shortages became acute and the country’s king, Muhammed VI, issued a decree calling on the faithful at mosques throughout the country to pray for rain.
Protests over what has been seen as government inaction and incompetence have broken out in several areas; in November last year 15 people were crushed to death as hungry farming families queued for supplies of flour.
A bad situation looks likely to become worse.
Latest research by the Brookings Institution in the US predicts that climate change is going to result in average temperatures rising across the North African region by 3°C by 2050.
Rainfall over much of Morocco is anticipated to decline by 10% at the same time as water usage rates rise substantially.
Desert spread There is also concern that, along with warming, the Sahara desert could advance northwards, further threatening Morocco’s important agricultural sector, which accounts for 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 40% of the country’s workforce.
This includes an ambitious renewable energy programme, with a target of producing more than 50% of electricity supply by 2030 through a combination of solar and wind power.
Near the town of Ouarzazate, on the edge of the Sahara desert, Morocco is building what’s billed as one of the world’s biggest solar installations.
Improving irrigation To cope with water shortages the government is also constructing what is likely to be the world’s largest desalination plant – turning seawater into drinking water – near the tourist destination of Agadir on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

For these Americans, it is always Day Zero.
Water poverty affects nearly 1.6 million people in the United States, but it remains a stubbornly invisible crisis.
Today, African Americans are twice as likely as whites to live without modern plumbing.
On the Navajo Nation, where I work, 40 percent of the nearly 170,000 residents still haul water home in bottles or buckets, often at great expense.
Even here in California more than 1 million people rely on public drinking water systems that have violated state safety standards, threatening their health.
The most comprehensive data we have on U.S. water poverty comes from the Census Bureau, but it is maddeningly unspecific and often inaccurate.
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey tells us there are about 1.6 million Americans living in housing that lacks “complete plumbing facilities.” That could mean they don’t have a flush toilet or a bathtub or shower.
It doesn’t tell us how communities cope with these challenges every day.
Most important, census data doesn’t explain why these communities still don’t have access to water and sanitation when nearly every other American does.
Instead of waiting for the next Cape Town or California water crisis to wonder, “Will we still have water tomorrow?” we should be asking right now, “Who needs water today?” George McGraw is the founder of Dig Deep, a nonprofit working to bring clean running water to every American.

It’s dry country up here, west of Emerald in Central Queensland.
Free standing water is like liquid gold to us.
Luckily for graziers like me, we have the Great Artesian Basin, our greatest inland water resource, which covers 22% of Australia.
More than 81% of Great Artesian Basin springs are now inactive, and I’m the first to acknowledge that a lot of that harm was caused by water extraction by graziers and farmers.
Now, the very same governments that spent so much time and effort working with graziers to cap bores and install pipes, are handing out unlimited quantities of water, including Great Artesian Basin water, to coal and gas companies.
In Adani’s Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan, which determines how they deal with the risk to these natural springs, they ignore the information from the bioregional assessment.
The Adani Management Plan does not refer to the new research that has found geological faulting in nearby areas or the fact that the true source of the Doongmabulla Springs is still unknown.
It does not refer to the new research that the bioregional assessment recommended should be undertaken to identify the source of the springs and assess the true risk of the mine – seismic surveys and a nest of deep bores.
The bioregional assessment was initiated by the commonwealth government several years ago, to quantify the cumulative impacts and risks that multiple new coal and gas projects were having on Queensland’s water resources.
And out here in this dry country, that puts our future on the line.

Like a lot of farmers and ranchers who coped with severe drought in 2017, John Weinand is praying for rain.
“One year is not so bad.
Most people can get by on one year,” said Weinand, who farms near Beulah and is past president of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association.
“It does have a significant impact because our economy is so strongly rooted in agriculture,” said Julie Ellingson, executive vice president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association.
Because of the severity of the drought in 2017 and the low amount of moisture the state has received this winter, Ellingson said producers are concerned about another dry year.
Ranchers are taking steps to prepare, such as assessing their feed resource base and planning to allow pasture lands a longer recovery time this spring before turning out cattle, Ellingson said.
The National Weather Service’s drought outlook through May 31 predicts that drought will persist in north central and northwest North Dakota.
Producers discussed strategies for finding crop success during a drought and grazing strategies for pastures stressed by last summer’s dry weather.
Ranchers will continue to benefit from drought disaster livestock water supply projects the State Water Commission has helped fund.
The agency has made $2 million available in matching funds for producers in drought-stricken areas to pay for new wells, hookups to water pipelines and other projects.

A series of declarations by the USDA, starting with announcements in mid-March, allow farmers and ranchers in Colorado to qualify for natural disaster assistance.
Counties in Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico were also designated as primary natural disaster areas the same day.
Producers in contiguous counties already eligible from the March 8 declaration, such as Baca county, may gain an additional week to apply for assistance.
Four Kansas counties also received a designation March 15, which allowed Prowers county producers to become eligible.
Qualified produces in the designated areas and adjoining counties can apply for emergency loans through the Farm Service Agency.
The SBA announced March 15 that small, non-farm businesses in 70 Oklahoma counties were eligible for low-interest disaster loans to help offset losses from reduced income caused by drought.
In Colorado, Baca county qualified under the declaration.
"SBA eligibility covers both the economic impacts on businesses dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and businesses directly impacted by the disaster," according to Tanya Garfield, Director of the SBA’s Disaster Field Operation Center-West.
While economic injury disaster loans are triggered when the USDA declares an agricultural disaster, only businesses that are not primarily engaged in farming or ranching are eligible for the SBA disaster assistance.
April 17 is the deadline for eligible businesses in Kit Carson county, Colorado, to apply for disaster loans.

TONIGHT: Clouds will hold on into the evening and overnight hours.
You’ll want to grab your jacket headed out the door on Sunday morning.
SUNDAY: We will start the morning out with mostly cloudy skies, but we will finally begin to see them break up into the afternoon, where temperatures will rebound into the middle 50s.
Make sure you get out to enjoy the dry time because more rain is on the way late Sunday.
EXTENDED: You’ll want to keep the umbrella handy out the door on your Monday as more rain looks to overspread the area starting early in the morning.
The heaviest rain looks to fall until the mid-afternoon hours.
We’ll see a period of scattered showers following that initial wave, before another area of rain arrives Tuesday.
Rainfall totals of 1-3” are expected across Mid-Missouri with the highest amounts south of I-70.
We look to dry out Wednesday and calmer weather will close out the work week.
Watch ABC 17 News for the latest forecast and check back here for updates.

With each new season, NOAA releases a climate outlook covering the likelihood of flooding and drought, as well as the likely temperature fluctuations to come over the months leading to summer.
This year, heavy rains have caused flooding in the Ohio and Mississippi River basin.
Even in other areas of the country where there is a minor chance of flooding, heavy rainfall or thunderstorms could increase likelihood.
For example, storms in much of the Southeast are already in the forecast for the last week in March.
The outlook map indicates areas where the chance of flooding is a 50 percent risk or higher.
Areas of red show where moderate flooding is expected and the yellow/orange colors show where the risk of flooding is minor for spring 2018, according to NOAA.
The high plains and some areas of the Southeast are also at risk of seeing drought conditions as the spring continues on.
In many of those areas where drought is more likely, precipitation is also expected to be low.
Below-average levels of precipitation are expected to occur from California across the country through the low plains including much of Texas and parts of Oklahoma, according to NOAA.
Though many parts of the Northeast have gotten several winter storms in the last month or so, the latest falling on the first full day of spring, the area should still expect a spring with temperatures above average.

The funds have been allocated to the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces over the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.
Making the announcement on Thursday, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize said the approval and transfer of these funds is based on the conditions for the Municipal Provincial Disaster Grants, as stipulated in the applicable Grant Framework.
The funds were transferred to the recipients on 19 March 2018, except for the remaining funds for the agriculture sector in Northern Cape which will be transferred in two separate instalments during the 2018/19 financial year, based on the conditions on the ground, as well as progress on the implementation of relief measures within affected communities.
Minister Mkhize urged the grant recipients, which are provinces including relevant departments and municipalities, to implement the drought relief projects swiftly without any delays.
“This will be done through the relevant technical teams/work streams constituted by relevant national government departments and organs of state, as well as the Provincial Disaster Management Centres with relevant provincial or regional government departments and existing structures.
“The Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) [on Drought and Water Scarcity] will continue to monitor the drought conditions throughout the country as well as regularly provide leadership and oversight to the organs of state for appropriate decision making, including the regular review of decisions based on the drought and water shortage conditions within the country,” Minister Mkhize said.
Since the IMTT on Drought and Water Scarcity announced the declaration of drought as a national disaster on 13 March 2018, the severity of the drought is still evident in all the Cape provinces – Western, Eastern and Northern.
“We caution all people in South Africa, whether citizens or visitors, even though some parts of the country are receiving rains and others even experiencing flash flooding, it is important to note that we are not out of the woods yet with regard to drought conditions.
We call on tourists to continue visiting South Africa and experience all that our beautiful country has to offer,” Minister Mkhize said.
He said communities should protect water resources and infrastructure as well as report criminal acts to the relevant authorities.