Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96L.971106214000.14392D-100000@fox.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 21:50:50 -0600 From: kerry <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: WB okays $285m loan for drainage scheme To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
DAWN - Top Stories; 06 November, 1997 http://dawn.com/daily/today/top8.htm
WB okays $285m loan for drainage scheme
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The World Bank on Wednesday announced approval of a $285 million soft loan for Pakistan's National Drainage Programme (NDP) , a project envisaging creation of provincial irrigation development bodies in all the four provinces, a press release said. "The project will support the implementation of major policy and institutional reforms in the water sector, finance urgently-needed investments in irrigation and drainage, and promote research to strengthen Pakistan's technical knowledge based on irrigation and drainage," the bank said.
The credit approval will activate a combined financing package of $785 million from the government of Pakistan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Japan's Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). The credit is provided by International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary leading affiliate, the bank added. The Indus Basin Irrigation System is the life-line of Pakistan's agriculture and the largest integrated irrigation network in the world. Eight[y] per cent of Pakistan's cultivated area, or 17 million hectares, is irrigated and irrigated agriculture accounts for more than 90 per cent of agricultural output and 22 per cent of GDP. The lack of an effective drainage system to combat the twin menaces of waterlogging and salinity is the principal threat to the survival of irrigated agriculture in Pakistan.
The project will carry out the first phase of the National Drainage Programme which was conceived and developed by the government of Pakistan in 1995 in response to the crisis. The 25-year programme is designed to develop a network of drains to carry saline effluent safely to the sea and thereby restore environmentally sound irrigated agriculture in Pakistan.
[...] At the provincial level, the provincial irrigation and drainage authorities (PIDAs) have already been established from the provincial irrigation departments while area water boards (AWBs) will operate at the canal command levels, initially on a pilot basis. Farmers will be represented on both PIDAs and AWBs. Farmer organizations (FOs), owned and controlled by farmers, will be encouraged through a series of pilots in each AWB to take over and manage the irrigation and drainage system below the distributaries and subdrains feeding into branch drains operated by AWBs. The project will benefit the farmers directly and the entire agriculture sector indirectly by reclaiming abandoned land, rehabilitating existing lands and improving drainage in about 13.5 million acres. Farmers benefiting from the project will also contribute to the costs.
========= [In an earlier (Aug 97) report, Minister for Water and Power Abdullah J. Memon] told Dawn that the withdrawal of objection by Punjab would help the government secure $1 billion assistance from the World bank, Asian Development Bank and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan to undertake comprehensive drainage programme throughout Pakistan....
"Then we will also discuss with the World Bank Master Drainage Programme that will effectively cover the existing Left Bank Outfall Drainage (LBOD) and Right Bank Outfall Drainage(RBOD) programmes", Mr Memon said....
The programme will help improve the canal system by rehabilitating 1,225 saline ground water tubewells and remodelling of surface drains extending 600km and construction of a new surface drain of 9,060km.
) DAWN Group of Newspapers, 1997