$104.5 million Barani water project to be launched from July: PIPD
FAISALABAD (April 09 2008): The Barani Integrated Water Resources Sector Project will be launched next fiscal year from July 2008, and it will be completed during 2014 by the Punjab Irrigation and Power Department (PIPD) with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to update project investment plan, PIPD sources said the investment cost of the project is estimated at $104.5 million equivalent, including taxes and duties of $14.4 million equivalent. Financial charges during implementation (comprising interest during implementation and commitment charges) are estimated at $7.5 million.
Sources stated that the project's impact is to improve households' income and health in the four districts of Attock, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, and Chakwal in the Barani Areas of Punjab. The project's outcome is to increase agriculture and livestock productivity and household access to domestic water supply.
The project outcome will also be increased sustainable water storage capacity; sustainable and profitable command areas and domestic water supply developed; and enhanced dam planning, management, and implementation capacity.
The second output will be developed sustainable rural water supplies and sanitation and increased small towns, domestic water entitlements; efficient community-based management irrigation schemes, and improved farmers' access to production support and market services.
They said the sector project will support the Punjab government's efforts to develop water resources and improve their management in four districts of the Barani areas of Punjab that suffer from water scarcity. The project intends to improve households' income and health by increasing crop and livestock productivity through irrigation development and increased access to water and sanitation.
Activities will include (i) the construction of dams and appurtenant structures to increase water availability in the area; (ii) watershed management to enhance the dams' life expectancy; (iii) development of the rural water supply for communities in the vicinity of the dam; (iv) development of community-managed irrigation distribution network; (v) agriculture extension services to support the transition to irrigated agriculture; and (vi) institutional support.
The project will also rehabilitate and develop irrigation schemes, provide extension support, and improve watershed management in existing dams. To address the problem of sustainability and low economic returns observed in previous dam projects in Barani areas, the project will change the sub-sector implementation practices and follow an integrated approach looking simultaneously at dam development, watershed management, and command area development. Similarly, it will support devolution of the water scheme to organised water users and foster a demand-driven approach through the inclusion of social mobilisation support.
While figures from the government of Punjab indicate that between 75 and 80 percent of the population have access to safe drinking water in the Pothowar plateau, the real availability of water to households in this area is extremely limited.
As early as in the 1960s, the sources said that dams were developed to increase water availability in the Pothowar plateau. To date, a total of 50 dams from 11 to 40 meters (m) high and with reservoir storage of from 600,000 to 54 million cubic meters (m3) have been commissioned by the Small Dams Organisation (SDO) under the Punjab Irrigation and Power Department (PIPD), with a total canal command area of around 24,500 hectares. This storage represents 12 percent of the estimated 2,320 million total runoff generated in the plateau and only a small portion of the many potential dam sites that have already been identified.
The PIPD will be the executing agency for the project and responsible for overall project management and implementation. A PMU headed by a PIPD-appointed project director will be established. Three PMU field offices, one for Attock and Rawalpindi districts, one for Chakwal district, and one for Jhelum district will be established. Each office will be staffed with a full-time specialist seconded from the Punjab government departments of agriculture, livestock, and forestry.
The PMU will assume the following roles: (i) overall interagency and district coordination; (ii) recruiting consultants and non-government organisations (NGOs), and awarding procurement and consulting contracts, as well as all project financial management; (iii) consolidating, reviewing, and submitting regular progress and financial reports to the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the ADB; and (iv) monitoring and evaluating project outputs and results. The PMU will also be responsible for directly implementing the watershed management activities under the first, second, and third outputs. The Small Dams Organisation (SDO) will be responsible for implementing dam planning and construction activities under the first output.
In implementing those activities, SDO will receive specific advisory support on safeguard and technical matters from the PMU. For each subproject under its responsibility, the SDO will appoint a sub-divisional officer who will supervise the dam feasibility and, detail design studies, and the engineering construction supervision consultants. In implementing the water supply-related activities, the PMU will involve the relevant tehsil municipal administration (TMAs) in (i) assessing the demand for water supplies, (ii) organising the future water supply users, and (iii) supervising the overall execution of works and services related to water supply activities.
To expedite project implementation, the PIPD sources mentioned that the sub-projects will be prepared in batches equivalent to 2,000 hectares (ha) of irrigated agriculture development (between one and four sub-projects).
Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]
