The three-day national workshop on community based water conservation-Lachi experience was concluded here on Wednesday with stress on construction of small and mini-dams to prepare substitutes for big dams to meet the high water scarce situation in the near future. The three-day workshop was held under the auspices of United Nations Development Program (UNDP), DFID and RSPN.
Speaking on National Water Policy, Ministry of Water and Power Chief Engineering Advisor I B Sheikh said the ministry was working on draft water policy and looking for additional water courses to overcome the shortage of water. He said they had also received the recommendations of the symposium on community based Integrated Water Resource Management held in February this year which would be incorporated into the draft policy.
Khalid Mohtadullah in his presentation and adoption of recommendations said the population of Pakistan increasing by 2.8 per cent and if the pace remained the same the population would reach to 250 million by 2025 and the prevailing water resources would be insufficient to meet the requirements.
Regarding the construction of watercourses, he said it would only prevent the wastage of water and would be conserved only through additional means of small dams to protect country from the water scarcity.
After thorough deliberations and discussions, participants of the workshop prepared five recommendations which would be sent to the Ministry for Water and Power for their inclusion in the draft policy.
In the first recommendation the participants have called for mobilisation of communities to become involved in all stages of the project cycle, including identification, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and operation and maintenance of schemes to improve the development and management of water resources at local/sub-basin level.
2. An integrated approach to the identification, planning and implementation of land and water resources management interventions should be followed to ensure the involvement of stakeholders from different sectors in the process. The RSP's model of social mobilisation combined with integrated land and water management will maximise the potential benefits from interventions and bring about rapid and sustainable improvements to livelihoods.
3. Water harvesting by the provision of mini-dams and other structures provide a cost-effective solution to improving the availability of water in semi-arid and arid areas and contribute to the national efforts to save water. Water harvesting should be promoted in hilly out of basin and out of command in basin areas to address the widespread poverty and found in these areas.
4. Funds should be provided for investment in community-based water harvesting activities in water scarce arid areas to replicate/ upscale the Lachi experience of poverty reduction. Considering the enormous level of poverty in these areas, it is strongly recommended that 10 per cent of the funds allocated to conserve water in watercourses should be allocated to water harvesting in water-scarce arid areas.
5. Funds will be provided for investment in activities to assist communities in the degraded range land catchments of water scarce-arid areas to overcome poverty by improving the management of range lands. Appropriate activities including the formation of community-based range land management association and provision of funds to the RMA for water harvesting and soil conservation measures.