Displaced by the flooding a Baloch family struggle to keep their tent on the ground during a sandstorm in Kech district, Balochistan , Pakistan  on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007.


Cyclone Yemyin started on the Pakistan coast on the 24th June 2007. Days of torrential rain followed causing the Pakistan Government to flood the Mirani Dam this caused hundreds of thousands of homes to be destroyed. Nearly seven years of drought have caused the river beds to dry up forcing water to move over a larger area causing more damage to towns and farm lands. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and 200 lost their their lives. The daytime temperature reaches up-to 55 C and the night time drops below  -C.



Sandstorms happen in Sub Saharan Africa and the Arabian peninsula around Pakistan, Iran and India. The UN has issued a desertification warning saying over the next decade ten of millions of people could be driven out of these areas around the world. As defined by the UN Convention, desertification is a process of "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities".