The Sindh government has decided to declare Tharparkar a calamity-hit district after a severe drought destroyed most of the district’s crops, with officials reporting that about 90 per cent of the crop has been lost. Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah took the decision at a briefing on the drought on Saturday, and ordered urgent measures to secure drinking water, repair water plants and protect livestock across the desert district.
According to the briefing, all seven talukas of Tharparkar are facing drought-like conditions. The agriculture extension department told the chief minister that 85 to 90 per cent of crops in the district had been destroyed or rendered unproductive, putting the crop loss at about 90 per cent. The decision was reported by Express News, Daily Jang and Geo News.
Ninety per cent of the crop is gone
For farming families in Tharparkar, the crop is both food and income. The district depends almost entirely on rain-fed farming, so when the rains fail there is no second crop to fall back on. The briefing said the damage covers almost the whole cultivated area, and the natural grass that livestock feed on has dried out along with the crops.
The loss reaches beyond the fields. Herders who depend on that grass now face the risk of losing animals, and households that earn from the harvest face a season with little or no income. That is why the declaration matters: it is the formal step that allows the government to move relief into the district.
Why the rains failed
The briefing blamed the failure on the September rains. Only 1 to 36 millimetres of rain was recorded across the seven talukas in September 2026, and the rain that did fall was spread unevenly. Crops and natural grass dried out before they could mature.
Tharparkar is a desert district of more than 1.4 million people, where drought is a recurring threat and the district has been declared drought-hit repeatedly in past decades. With no irrigation system covering the desert, the district lives or dies on the monsoon, and this year the monsoon did not deliver.
What the government has ordered
Murad Ali Shah directed the departments concerned to ensure drinking water supply to residents, to repair reverse osmosis (RO) plants that are not working and make them functional again, and to restore all existing water supply sources immediately. He also asked the chief secretary to examine the feasibility of a water pipeline from Nawkot to Mithi, and directed long-term planning for the area’s water supply. Daily Jang spells the town Nokot.
On livestock, the chief minister asked for recommendations on measures to protect animals affected by the drought. He directed continuous monitoring of relief measures in the drought-hit areas. “We will not leave the affected people of Tharparkar alone; the Sindh government will provide them all possible help,” he said, in remarks reported in Urdu.
The government said its priorities are drinking water, protecting livestock and relief for affected families.
What happens next for Tharparkar
The decision to declare the district calamity-hit opens the way for formal relief measures, but the immediate test is delivery: whether water reaches villages in time, whether broken RO plants are repaired quickly, and whether fodder and support reach herders before animals begin to die.
For now, the people of Tharparkar wait on the measures the chief minister has ordered. The declaration recognises the scale of what has been lost; the relief that follows will decide how much of the district’s farming and herding life can be saved.
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