Integrated Water Resource Sector Project: $103.30 million ADB assistance for barani areas of Punjab

Barani Integrated Water Resource Sector Project (formerly Community Storage and Irrigated Agriculture Development Sector Project) will be completed with the total cost of $103.30 million with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank in Attock, Rawalpindi, Jehlum, Chakwal and other Barani areas of Punjab province.
Irrigation and Power Department, Punjab sources stated that the expected impact of the proposed project is improved household income and health in the four districts of project areas.
These districts were selected due to their high percentage of rain-fed agriculture compared to other districts in the barani areas and their high potential for water storage development. The project's outcome is to increase crops and livestock productivity and households' access to domestic water supply.
This will be obtained from the conversion of 11,500 hectares (ha) of rain-fed agricultural land into irrigated land and the improvement of irrigation on 10,000 ha in existing systems. Two representative subprojects ("core subprojects") were selected to assess the Project's feasibility with regards to technical, social, financial and economic aspects as well as to social and environmental safeguards.
The selection of core subprojects was based on size of investment, type of proposed dam, representative geographical and social conditions, severity of environmental and resettlement impacts. As of today, less than 10 percent of total crop output is produced from the Barani cultivated land of Punjab and North West Frontier provinces. This low productivity that affects 18.6 percent and 49 percent of the Punjab and NWFP total cultivated area respectively is further constraining an already low national agricultural growth and is forcing Barani residents to migrate or live in poverty.
Yet significant gains in agriculture and livestock productivity and related economic growth can be obtained through water resources development for which little investment support has been made available to date.
With suitable topography and rainfall, the best potential option appears to be the development of water storage through the construction of small to medium dams. Previous experiences show however that small to medium dam development in Barani areas needs to be developed through an integrated approach to ensure the full development of the potential economic benefits.
As such, the provision of the infrastructure will need to be demand driven and accompanied with the development of community managed irrigation schemes, on farm water management support, irrigated agriculture and market linkages development support, watershed conservation to prevent fast sedimentation and targeted support to ensure the full development of stored water uses for drinking and other purposes, sources added.
In an update project report, Arnaud M. Cauchois, Rural Development Specialist of ADB said that water plays a critical role in the economic development and welfare of communities throughout Pakistan and the existence of secure water supply can make a tremendous difference in available livelihood opportunities. One of the means to improve water security is through the development of storage for communities to have assured irrigation water availability during critical growth stages, for crops, for livestock and for household use.
He said that the project would provide 605 person-months (p/m) of national consultants and 52 p/m of international consultants through both consulting firms and individual consultants. All consulting services will be recruited in accordance with ADB's Guidelines on the Use of Consultants by Asian Development Bank and Its Borrowers (2007, as amended from time to time). The project will provide 569 p/m of national project implementation consultants (8 long- term consultants) for the PMU.
This includes the Project Director, the head of M&E, the Water Supply and Sanitation co-ordinator, the livestock advisor and 4 technical managers for on-farm water management, farming system, watershed conservation, finance and 5 p/m of unallocated national consultants. They will be recruited as individual consultants. The project will also provide technical advisory services comprising 52 p/m of international consultants and 36 p/m of national consultants.