Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

UN Report Lists 23 Countries as “Drought-Hit”

The report warned that if current land degradation trends continue, food supply disruptions, forced migration, rapid biodiversity loss and species extinctions will increase, accompanied by a higher risk of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, declining human health, and land resource conflicts.
May 16, 2022
Drought

According to the Global Land Outlook report released by the United Nations, Pakistan along with 23 other countries has been listed as “drought-hit”.

The United Nations on May 15 listed 23 countries that are facing drought emergencies. According to the report released by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), these 23 countries have experienced drought emergencies in the last two years.

The 23 countries are Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, the United States and Zambia, reported Pakistani daily, Dawn.

The report added that an additional 4 million square kilometres will need rehabilitation by 2050, while emphasising the need to provide immediate funding to developing countries.

United Nations Global Land Outlook says that desertification control through sustainable land management on productive land is scarce in Pakistan, as 80 percent of the country is arid or semi-arid. Land degradation and desertification are caused by unsustainable land management practices, coupled with increased demand for natural resources, and driven by a rapidly growing and largely rural population dependent on dry lands for their livelihoods.

The report says nations’ current pledge to restore one billion degraded hectares by 2030 requires $1.6 trillion this decade — a fraction of today’s annual $700 billion in fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies.

The report warned that at no other point in modern history has humanity faced such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks and hazards, interacting in a hyper-connected and rapidly changing world.