Punjab government is redrawing "Punjab irrigated agriculture development sector project" to tackle sources of groundwater in many areas in the province, which plays a critical role in irrigated agriculture. According to official sources, on-farm water management activities, such as 24,000 watercourse improvement and laser levelling would continue separately and the provincial government has earmarked an amount of Rs 6.6 billion for this purpose.
At present, groundwater in many areas with poor water supply often supplements surface irrigation or provides an additional cropping season when surface water is not available. During the recent drought, groundwater sustained productivity in many areas of Punjab even when no surface water was available. Groundwater tables have been dropping in many areas, however groundwater management is essentially non-existent. Groundwater recharge is heavily dependant upon canal flow and its availability and quality for irrigation varies throughout Pakistan. This implies that conjunctive use and an approach tailored to local conditions is required for ground and surface water management.
Drainage is also an important element for effective irrigation. The government has several drainage programs and is currently finalising a 'national drainage master plan'. As with the various irrigation rehabilitation programs, however, groundwater management and drainage activities are not integrated on comprehensive basis with other irrigation and water management activities. According to the new project strategy, the integrated water resources management and conjunctive use activities for surface water, groundwater and drainage are to be ensured.
Development of agricultural support activities to optimise productivity under the program and capacity development activities to support training for Provincial Irrigation and Power Departments, Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDAs), area water boards (AWBs), farmer organisations (Fos), and agricultural support service providers are aimed at.
According to the new strategy, the components should result in a new integrated process for comprehensive irrigation system rehabilitation and modernisation that helps ensure maximum productivity. The outputs would include civil works for canal rehabilitation, development of capacity development programs, and requisite resources (vehicles, offices, etc) to support the new institutional arrangements consistent with the design under NDP.
Under the new project, 'new agricultural support services' will also be included. Monitoring systems would be developed for all aspects of the program.
The canal rehabilitation, on-farm water management activities, agricultural activities, and institutional reforms will work together to transform irrigation from being supply-driven to demand responsive, supporting higher-value agriculture.
Under the new strategy for redrawing, the institutional reforms should provide for greater management accountability for system operation. Empowerment of the FOs and AWBs that are responsible for operation and maintenance (O&M) and tariff collection should provide a more sustainable approach for system maintenance that has been significantly lacking and under-resourced by the current provincial irrigation and power departments. The project should result in improved agricultural productivity, enhanced farmer's income and reduced rural poverty. It should not only provide benefits to farmers, but also to landless labourers involved in agricultural production.
According to official sources, the project will provide both irrigation system rehabilitation and institutional reform with greater control over system O&M to the water users. Although no new canal networks or storage will be created under the project, the civil works may require some canal re-routing or the installation of field channels. Although the impacts should be minor, in some cases, this may invoke ADB's resettlement policy, so a resettlement framework will be required. Greater social inclusion should be achieved by giving more power to the water users to manage the system. The project addresses rehabilitation and improved management of surface water, groundwater, and drainage, environmental conditions should improve.
Talking about background situation, official sources stated that most of Pakistan's irrigation infrastructure was very old, much developed during the British era and in need of rehabilitation and modernisation. Substantial domestic and donor investment will be required, if the productivity of irrigated agriculture is to improve.
Asian Development Bank sources stated that the bank had a long history of involvement in water sector in Pakistan. The ADB has not been involved with new lending for irrigation in Pakistan for several years. However, it supported development of a national water sector strategy (WSS) that was executed under the Ministry of Water and Power and completed in 2003.
The WSS provided an outline for reforms in the irrigation sector as well as overall reforms for water resources development and management. The WSS included a medium-term investment plan to prioritise the existing infrastructure investment portfolio. Support for the WSS provided an opportunity for the ADB to re-engage the water sector and an institutional development technical assistance (IDTA) in 2004, provides the first step for ADB lending, starting with this loan in 2006 and its preparation in 2005.
One reason for the recent hiatus from investing in irrigation has been some dissatisfaction on the part of the ADB with project implementation and the pace of reforms in Pakistan. Problems existed with ADB project execution by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) within the Ministry of Water and Power at the federal level with the recent inspection panel for the Chashma Right Bank Canal as the most serious example of implementation problems.
The ADB was involved with National Drainage Program (NDP) that was also funded by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) and the WB, and provided over US 700 million dollars for irrigation rehabilitation and drainage improvements with reforms that were supposed to transform provincial irrigation.
Initially, the reforms proved to be a disappointment with poor implementation and little progress. In the last few years, however, some reforms required under the NDP have been implemented, most notably in Sindh and to a lesser extent in Punjab and north-west Frontier Province. This includes the development of provincial irrigation development authorities at the provincial level, AWBs at the canal level, and the FOs at the minor and distributary canal level. The new institutional arrangements are intended to transform the provincial irrigation and power departments and decentralise responsibility for irrigation management to water users.
Pakistan currently has several national programs for system rehabilitation that address various different aspects of irrigation systems. They also provide support for on-farm water management activities such as watercourse development implemented through Provincial Departments of Agriculture. However, these activities are not co-ordinated to ensure those improved flows in the main and branch canals are delivered more effectively at the field level.
Irrigation system rehabilitation under all programs is usually undertaken with the objective to restore the system to its original operating condition without new design, structures, or significantly improved water control capacity required for more demand responsive supply.
In no instance has an irrigation system improvement been combined with enhanced agricultural support services to ensure that benefits from improved water supply maximise productivity. This approach to irrigated agriculture rehabilitation yields questionable results with regard to increased productivity of existing crops or facilitating development of diversified higher-value crops.
For many of the proposed national and provincial irrigation rehabilitation programs, detailed project documents (PC-1s) approved by the government already exist that may provide a basis for project preparation. The project will review existing PC-1s to see if they can be integrated or amended and provide a basis for the project development.
The proposed ADB loan will have a provincial, geographically targeted approach that focuses on a single main canal command area. The loan will solely address rehabilitation with the Punjab Provincial Irrigation and Power Department as the primary executing agency. The approach is to avoid some of the previous problems ADB has had with implementing projects using national level agencies for development of new irrigation systems or water resource management interventions.
The goal of the loan is to increase the productivity of irrigated agriculture in Pakistan and to stem rural poverty. The loan will provide support for irrigation system rehabilitation and modernisation; integrate on-farm water management and agricultural activities with canal rehabilitation; build upon and deepen the irrigation and water resources management institutional reforms that were started under NDP; promote integrated water resources management for surface water, groundwater, and drainage; and provide capacity development for concerned stakeholders.
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