Pakistan annually wastes about 60 percent of waters most of which go to sea and major source of water logging at field level hence building of water reservoirs is need of the hour. This was stated by the Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Kahn while addressing a workshop titled "Impact Evaluation Study of National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses in Pakistan" here on Tuesday.
He said that considering the importance of the project the government had engaged a third party consultant AAB to study the impact of the project on water saving; reduction in conveyance losses, litigation, tempering of watercourses, water logging and salinity; increase in cropped area, cropping intensity/yield in project area; and economic and financial impact. "I am much pleased to know that the consultants have done their job successfully and have found very encouraging results. NPIWC has met and in most of cases surpassed the designed project targets related to the water saving, reduction in water losses along with the socio-economic indicators," he added.
Liaqat said that a mega project worth Rs 66 billion for improvement of over 86,000 watercourses throughout the country for saving water on one hand and making the system more efficient on the other. It is heartening to note that over 67,500 watercourses have been improved at a cost of Rs 39 billion since inception of the project in 2004.
According to project details ECNEC approved "National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses in Pakistan (NPIWC)" on December 7, 2004 at the cost of Rs 66.373 billion with Government of Pakistan's share of Rs 50.66 billion. The project envisages improvement of 86,000 watercourses in 52 months (extendable). 67,500 watercourses including 6,084 storage tanks have reportedly been improved till March 31, 2011. So for the government has released Rs 39 billion for the project against PC-I provision of Rs 50.66 billion. He said that the report presented by the consultant is quite comprehensive and covers all aspects of the agriculture sector that have benefited from the project. The report is, indeed, a valuable addition to latest statistical compilations on agriculture and reflects the overall positive change in production as a result of the project, he added.
According to the report Pakistan is currently faced with many challenges in the water sector: shortage of water and increasing competition among growers, increasing domestic uses, industries and environment; poor system performance; low productivity of land and water; ageing irrigation system; increased operation and maintenance costs; diminishing reservoir capacities due to sedimentation and persistent drought.