Water logging, salinity issues: Sindh government requests Centre to share 50 percent cost of regional plan

Sindh government has requested the federal government to share 50 percent cost of the regional plan for Left Bank of Indus Delta & Coastal Zone Sindh aimed at treatment of water logging, salinity issues costing Rs 100 billion. Senator Taj Haider while talking to Business Recorder said the extent of water logging and salinity was more in Sindh than elsewhere in Pakistan.
"About 70 percent of the cultivable area in Sindh is vulnerable to water logging and salinity. As a downstream region, Sindh is at the receiving end of 80 million tons of salt together with 120 million cubic meters of salts annually from the upstream regions of its course."
Sharing the details of the project, Haider said the total cost of the seven-year project is estimated at about Rs 100 billion (equivalent to about $1.0 billion), of which the base cost is about Rs 79.78 billion ($798 million). The rest is price and physical contingencies. These estimates include about Rs 9 billion that has been spent during the last two years.
"Out of the total cultivable command area of 13.45 million acres in Sindh, only 1.85 million acre is under the treatment of fresh non-saline ground water, he added. He stated that the water-logging problem was arising from insufficient management of canal irrigation and inadequate drainage practices aggravate the salinity problem by raising the ground water table.
"Salinity and water-logging has affected the Sindh province as more than 57 percent of the cultivable land of Sindh is under water-logging, whereas 41 percent is under the influence of salinity." Giving the particulars of the plan and the rationale for the Regional Master Plan (RMP), he said that there was an urgent need to reduce flood damage and loss of life by improving the disposal of drainage and flood water in the Indus River left bank area. The area experienced major flood damage during floods in 2010-2012 and climate change is expected to - increase the probability of extreme weather events. As expressed by the stakeholders in the area, there is a pressing need to rehabilitate the existing Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) drainage infrastructure and to expand the drainage area from 4 districts to l5distncts by reviving the natural drainage system of dhoros, many of which are blocked and degraded, and building new surface storm water drains. In this way, many more people and a greatly expanded area will benefit from drainage services. Water logging and salinity will also be reduced with the expanded drainage system, as witnessed by the stakeholders after the operation of LBOD in the canal irrigated areas.
The impact of the RMP will reduce flood damage to agriculture, physical and social infrastructure, human lives, livestock, and fisheries in the Indus left bank area. The impact can be assessed in the longer term, say 20 years. The outcome will be improved disposal of drainage and flood water in the Indus left bank area. The outcome from the successful implementation of the RMP can be evaluated after the 6-7 year implementation period. As a result, the drainage area and the number of beneficiaries will be increased by over 3-fold, from about 1.7 million acres to 5.5 million acres and from about 6.3 million people to 21 million persons.
Sindh Province has a vast irrigation and drainage network and it is one of the primary beneficiaries of the Indus basin irrigation system, one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world. Of the 14 barrages on the Indus, Sindh has three that divert about 48 million acres feet or 59 billion cubic meters of water annually to 14 main canal commands. These canal systems have an aggregate length of 13,325 miles or 21,445 km, and serve a gross command area of about 14.4 million acres or 5.8 million hectors. There are also about 42,000 watercourses (tertiary channels), which have an aggregate length of about 75,000 miles or 120,000 kms. About 78 percent of the area in Sindh is underlain by saline groundwater which is unsuitable for irrigation and other uses. Surface and sub-surface drainage systems are inadequate, resulting in much of the drainage effluent being either retained in the basin or disposed of into rivers, canals, and drains. There are 13 existing surface drainage systems in Sindh, which serve a total area of over 6.2 million acres or 2.5 million hectares and have an aggregate length of about 3,800 miles or about 6,100 km. In addition, there are two sub-surface drainage systems which serve an area of 100,000 acres.
Due to an inadequate drainage network and the flat topography of the basin, nearly one- fifth of the canal command area is affected by water logging and salinity. To help address the problems of water logging and salinity, the LBOD was completed in 1997. LBOD collects drainage water from the three districts of the Sukkur barrage command area, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, and Mirpurkhas, and drains to the sea through Badin district through a tidal link drain. LBOD has performed well and the upper part of the LBOD area has benefited from the drainage. However, there are several issues unresolved in Badin district and the coastal zone. The project study area includes all areas in Sindh Province lying on the left bank of the Indus River, including the river delta, associated wetlands, and the coastal zone. It covers the irrigation areas served by the Indus River canals off-taking from the left bank of Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages, the area served by LBOD, and the extended area served by natural waterways or dhoros/dhoras that drain off rainstorm water. The 15 districts included in the study area are Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Matiari, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Tharparkar, Badin and the left bank of Thatta.