A World Bank (WB) delegation to review development projects funded by the bank including Rs 31.4 billion National Drainage Program (NDP) will arrive here on Monday. The World Bank delegation is part of six missions which would start visiting Pakistan from October 25 and are expected to remain in the country till November 10, sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday.
The bank has expressed willingness to resume funding for some projects, including the NDP, provided environment issues were sorted out and the private sector was encouraged to invest in water and drainage related projects.
The basic objective of the NDP is to restore sustainability of irrigated agriculture in an environmentally sound manner by minimising drainage surplus and evacuating the same from the Indus basin to the sea.
Sources said that Pakistan wants the World Bank to extend $100 million for the NDP so that the project, which was launched in January 1998, could be completed by December 2005.
The World Bank believes that the optimal water strategy for Pakistan's integrated Indus Basin System is technically complex.
The trade-off among the set of alternatives and complements (storage, conservation, reservoir scheduling policy, estuary maintenance policy and system expansion) are not simple because of the varying degrees of capital lumpiness, the uncertainty of costs and benefits, and the dependence of benefits and costs on the sequencing of investment.
Sources said that other World Bank missions relate to transport sector, banking sector technical assistance, Sindh economic sector, operation and evaluation for Balochistan, Punjab education sector reform programme and the banking sector adjustment credit.
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