In a bid to improve watercourses in Punjab, the associated project which is also supported by the World Bank has been showing successful results. Till now, the original target of 11,550 watercourses has been exceeded by 18 percent, around 13, 637 watercourses have already been improved in Punjab.
The project which is worth $250 million, will be concluded in December 2021. According to a project report issued by the World Bank, around 14, 896 watercourses will be improved by June of this year, which is 29 percent higher than the originally set target.
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Watercourse improvement can pave way for several employment opportunities for daily wage earners who have been the most affected in terms of financial stability due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moreover, watercourse improvements make trouble-free water flow possible which reduces the occurrence of evaporation, seepage et cetera. As a result, crop yield is improved, annual production gain is increased and there is an economic rate return of around 25 percent. It also enables “tail-end” users to benefit from improved water accessibility instead of falling victim to the elite in rural Pakistan.
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A total of 58,000 watercourses are situated in Punjab’s irrigated areas, out of which only 17,000 are left to be improved. Whereas, Pakistan as a whole has a total of 140,000 watercourses in its irrigated areas, out of which around 95,000 have been improved through several programs and donors.
An ongoing endeavor under the aforementioned project is the construction of water harvesting ponds, which is on its way to achieving the set target of 500 by June of this year, revealed the report issued by the World Bank. In addition, the target to install 5,000 laser land leveling units has already been reached.
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However, the target of establishing efficient irrigation systems has shown little progress and still has not been met, reasons possibly pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic, high investment requirement, and high risk attached to new technology et cetera. The system has around 8,800 acres of land due, while it has been installed on 71,250 acres of land.
According to the World Bank report, the Punjab Irrigation Agricultural Productivity Improvement Programme has made saving water from four million acres feet possible, which has been beneficial for 5.7 million farmers through 8.1 million days of employment opportunities and has paved the way for efficient crop growth on 66,000 acres.
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