The Annual Desilting Campaign 2009 is going on in full swing in the province and the desilting process of 4,415 mile long 639 water channels will be completed by January 31 by removing 13.13 lakh cubic feet silt. The Irrigation Department has earmarked an amount of Rs 176 million and authorised contractors who have latest machinery to perform the campaign and the Irrigation teams are monitoring their work.
This was stated by Secretary Irrigation Punjab, Babar Hassan Bharwana while giving a briefing to Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmad, Senior Advisor to CM Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa and Agriculture Minister Ahmad Ali Olakh here on Thursday. Secretary Irrigation said that 49 channels in Bahawalpur, 75 channels in DG Khan, 100 channels in Faisalabad, 114 channels in Lahore, 175 channels in Multan and 126 channels in Sargodha are being desilted. Desilting is being performed through contractors and the work is inspected by the XENs, SEs, Chief Engineers and 11 notified inspection teams.
Raja Riaz said that desilting would help to improve the water flow, ensure equitable distribution of supply between outlets of head and the tail reach, and to avoid breaches by bringing down the unnecessarily raised water line. It would also help to plug in 35 percent possible water shortfall for the Rabi Crop. He directed the Commissioners to supervise the desilting campaign in their respective areas and ensure its effective monitoring through the local administration.
He said that water would be released in the desilted channels after verifying the facts from different quarters including MPAs, District Administration and the Monitoring Teams. He regretted the fact that silt was illegally sold in the past but now PHA has been asked to use this silt for public benefits.