Review of PIDA’s water sector reforms – By Malik Rab Nawaz
Pakistan's Irrigation Network
The human history unveils many of the civilizations which left their homelands only because of the scarcity of water. The East India Company inaugurated the modern irrigation system in Sub Continent and proved their abilities to utilize the local resources with their management skills. In 1947, after the division of Sub Continent, Pakistan got the best irrigation system in the world which contains 22 main canals, 2794 distributary canals, 50 small dams, 31 barrages and 2100 miles long floods bunds only in Punjab.
The total length of this infrastructure is around 23,000 miles. The company established the Irrigation department to run this huge system, however, the system unfortunately deteriorated gradually because of the improper repair and maintenance and the unavailability of required funds. In the light of these circumstances, Punjab’s chief minister Shahbaz Sharif directed to establish Punjab Irrigation & Drainage Authority (PIDA) which has given the task to ensure the farmers’ participation in the affairs of canal management as well as the extension/ rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure and to enable it to meet the upcoming challenges.
According to World Bank reports, Pakistan is in the list of such countries of the world that are facing the red zone of water scarcity and it would be the most crucial issue if the arrangements of clean drinking water not made for the fast growing population. The per capita ratio of water availability in Pakistan was 5500 cusecs in 1947 but it has decreased by 1126 cusecs till now. Likewise Pakistan has only two major reservoirs for water storage but with the passage of time, the storage capacity of both the reservoirs has decreased by 20 to 30% due to silt. Despite of ample sites availability, we could not construct more water reservoirs on Indus, Kabul and Swat rivers. Due to the enemy’s intrigue of converting Pakistan into desert and the mutual conflicts of our nation, we have not gone through on this vital issue and as a result facing water shortage of 20-35% during the each crop season.
Moreover, due to the non construction of sufficient reservoirs, Pakistan faced heavy destruction on account of floods in 2010 which resulted a loss of billions of rupees crop production, livestock, roads, infrastructure and human resource.
Keeping in view the importance of water in agriculture sector, PIDA has provided the farmers an opportunity to distribute the irrigation water equitably by involving them in canals management. The farmers will also be responsible to keep the water channels in appropriate condition for the sustainable service delivery.
PIDA has promoted the concept of participatory irrigation management by realizing the farmers that they are the owner of their destiny. For this purpose, the Area Water Boards at main canal and Farmers Organizations (FO) at distributary levels have been established with the appropriate representation of farmers. There have been set up Area Water Boards in Lower Chenab Canal (east), Lower Chenab Canal (west), Lower Bari Doab Canal circle, Bahawalnagar Canal circle and Dera Jaat Canal circle of Punjab till now. In these Area Water Boards, 84 FOs in LCC (east), 67 in LCC (west), 69 in Bahawalnagar circle, 43 in LBDC Sahiwal, and 60 FOs in Dera Jaat canal circle have been constituted through transparent elections process and given the participation in irrigation management. PIDA has especially focused in the capacity building of these FOs and their members are being provided the trainings regarding office management, technical and revenue matters of canal affairs. Likewise, the internal audit system of these farmers’ organizations also has been devised and activated. The FOs have remarkably gained the benefits from the irrigation sector reforms.
The international development agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Bank and Asian Development Bank also have offered their technical and financial cooperation after observing the achievements of FOs.
Due to the results of irrigation sector reforms, these development agencies have provided the necessary funds for the further rehabilitation and revamping of irrigation infrastructure. The JICA provided Rs. 17804 millions for the rehabilitation of LCC system, Asian Development Bank Rs. 17178 millions for the improvement of Lower Bari Doab Canal system and World Bank has provided Rs.8000 millions funds for the revamping of Jinnah Barrage and Islam Head works. The Asian Development Bank has further agreed to provide the $650 million for the completion of ongoing projects of irrigation improvement. Likewise, another Punjab Irrigation System Improvement project (PISIP) has been launched especially focusing the rehabilitation of water channels in southern Punjab.
In present scenario, it is necessary to realize the public that the state assets are their own property and have been established by the public money so they should own and take care of them. The government is trying to make the irrigation sector reforms successful with the active involvement of farmers by realizing them the contribution and key role of Punjab province to fulfill the nutritional needs of the country. Punjab is actually the largest house of agro production in the country which produces food grain also for other provinces of Pakistan. This way, the success of institutional reforms in irrigation sector of Punjab is directly beneficial for the people of other provinces of Pakistan.
The participation of farmers in irrigation management will help curtail the theft of canal water while the improvement in the collection of water charges (abiana) is also expected. The farmers managed irrigation system has also helped in minimizing the mutual disputes of rural people especially related to irrigation water. This approach will also enhance their self confidence and the courage to bear each other as well as the care of neighbors’ rights. The country will automatically go in the way of agricultural development when the farmers work with mutual cooperation.
The situation of water scarcity in Pakistan demands us to perform our responsibilities at both, individual and national level for the conservation of water.
The Author is Secretary Irrigation /MD PIDA, Govt. of the Punjab
The upcoming times are very scary for all of us. We have to envision aggressive programs to safeguard our agriculture and irrigation plays a pivotal role in it.
The PPP has not been able to focus on reservoirs especially the big ones due to lack of consensus. We need to work towards that.
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