ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Asia Water Wire) – Pakistan has decided to open the purse-strings to build more reservoirs and expand irrigation and drinking water and sanitation as a strategy for development.

   Pakistan’s minister of state for finance Omar Ayub Khan has set aside 435 billion Pakistani rupees (7.5 million U.S. dollars) for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the budget for fiscal year 2006-2007 (July to June). Parliament approved the spending plan on June 21.

   Roughly eight percent of the PSDP budget (53.55 billion Pakistani ruppees) is earmarked for the water sector, including building reservoirs, expanding irrigation and drinking water and sanitation.

   The Water and Power Division (WPD) that oversees irrigation infrastructure, including reservoirs, is to get 47.74 billion Pakistani rupees.

   The investments in irrigation will save 25 percent of water that is now being wasted, said Omar Ayub Khan, the minister of state for finance while presenting the budget on June 5.

   Most of the WPD allocation is to be spent on ongoing projects – 11 billion Pakistani rupees to raise the height of the Mangla dam – country’s second largest reservoir.  It also plans to upgrade three major water courses, Katchi in Blochistan province gets 5.5 billion Pakistani rupees and Thal in Punjab and Rainee in Sind are to get 1.5 billion Pakistani rupees each. 

   The remaining fund is to be spent on new dams – Gomal Zam, Kurram Tangi, Mirani, Satpara, and Sabakzi – for projects for improving drainage and for undertaking feasibility studies for building small dams in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). 

   The Pakistan Planning Commission says the projects now underway will help raise water availability form 137.38 million acre feet (MAF) in 2005-2006 to 138.86 MAF in 2006-2007.

   The completion of the Mangla dam is to add another 2.9 MAF of water by September 2007.  Similarly, the Gomal Zam – to be completed by early 2009 – is to store another 1.14 MAF of water and help bring an additional 183,086 acres land under irrigation in the NWFP.

   However, the ever-increasing population – now160 million – has caused the per capita water availability to drop from about 5,300 cubic metres in 1950 to 1,100 cubic metres in 2005.

   “I feel they (the officials) are going in the right direction”, says Shamsul Mulk, former Chairman, Water and Power Development Authority. 

   “Development of water resources is key to the economic progress of Pakistan”, adds Karamat Ali, secretary of Pakistan Water Partnership. “Budgetary measures regarding water will be instrumental for the uplift of our agrarian economy” he adds.

   Under another on-going activity under the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), the government is upgrading 87,000 canals, of which about 15,000 are to be brick-lined by end-June. The budget sets aside another Rs 6 billion for the activity in 2006-2007.

   The finance minister has also set aside funds for introducing drip and sprinkle irrigation (1 billion Pakistani rupees). The investment is part of a government plan to spend Rs 15 billion for expanding these irrigation technologies. 

   “Sprinkle and drip irrigation projects will bring a revolution in agriculture,” says Sikandar Hayat Bosan, minister of agriculture. “Private companies would also be involved in the project,” he adds. 

   A quarter of Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around Rs. 7,500 billion (120 billion U.S. dollars) comes from agriculture, which is highly dependent on irrigation. Agriculture employs almost 44.8 percent of Pakistan’s workforce.

   The new irrigation technologies are expected to complement the country’s highly inefficient canal-based (flood) irrigation system, where much water is wasted.

   But Faiz Ahmad Zaidi, an expert on water, says the amount allocated for introducing drip and sprinkle irrigation methods is still small considering what is needed to address the in-efficiencies in flood-irrigation.  

   “The day is not far when we may have to move away completely from flood irrigation, and get used to using water in drops,” says Zaidi.

   Additionally, the government plans to spend Rs 4 billion for the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project which aims to install water purification plants in each of the country’s 6,035 union councils. The plan is to increase access to safe drinking water. 

   The project aims to install one water purification plant in each of 6,035 Union Councils by December 2007. Under this programme Pakistan’s aims to increase access to safe drinking water from 65 percent in 2004-2005 to 93 percent in 2015.

(END/AWW/IPSAP/QR/IS/BB/FS/260606)