ABSTRACT
Drought is a natural phenomenon caused by a meteorological anomaly, modified by the physical properties of a catchment. In order to prepare for drought and cope with it, the first step is to formulate a strategy and action plan. To put drought preparedness and long-term planning and mitigation into operation, it is proposed to establish a National Drought Management Center. The Center forms an appropriate drought management task force as a coordinating mechanism among stakeholders and decision-makers. Under the new strategy, there are good prospects of setting up a coherent drought management system with clear coordination mechanisms. For drought planning, a management cycle with four drought stages and phases is assumed. The prevailing conditions for each of these drought stages and program phases start from normal conditions through to drought alert, drought alarm, and emergency. The implementation of the plan is to identify current drought severity in different provinces of a country, as well as to determine the onset, duration, and end of the drought. For effective plan implementation, the expected tasks and responsibilities are assigned well in advance to each entity or stakeholder before the drought has occurred. The proposed Guidelines for Drought Mitigation and Preparedness Planning represents a comprehensive list of potential drought mitigation actions. Generally, it is better to consider a proper plan that has formed technically while considering successful experiences all over the word, which has then been enhanced and developed for local purposes, on the basis of definite facts of a specific region.
