Provinces asked to follow new plan for water saving
ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The federal government has asked the provinces to follow a farm and water management programme to save water for irrigation of the crops.
Besides, provinces have also been directed to provide necessary assistance to the farmers in checking the quality of land and setting up of tube wells in the sweet water areas so that problem of water shortage may be overcome and availability of irrigation water ensured in the badly affected areas.
According to official sources, the government is also considering ways and means to improve irrigation situation for enhancing agriculture production. On farming management programme for improvement of water courses on cost sharing basis and furrow bed irrigation techniques are essential to improve the water situation.
Besides, farm designing and planning the emphasis is being laid on precision land levelling by using laser technology to improve agriculture productivity. However, the aging irrigation system is facing severe problems such as poor operation and maintenance, low recovery of revenues, technical and managerial inadequacies, inequitable distribution of water, environment problems like water logging and salinity, etc., hence posing a threat to the economy of the country.
To counter these threats institutional reforms in the Water Management Reforms are under way for decentralization, participatory management and improved services and sustainability.
The reforms are intended to minimize the role of government agencies and to involve water users in the distribution of water, operation and maintenance (O&M) of the irrigation system and collection of water charges.
The reform process is expected to be implemented in a phased manner and the donor agencies are funding proposed institutional reforms under the ongoing National Drainage Project (NDP).
The proposed institutional set up will be field tested in the pilot area water boards (AWBs) and its performance would be closely monitored to learn from the experience and to identify the necessary adjustments in the roles and operating roles of the new upcoming institutions to optimize the process of reforms.
Implementation of the institutional reforms in the water sector is a new experience for our country. Therefore, there is a need to design this concept carefully and with complete consensus. Accordingly, the government is testing this model on pilot basis in few canal commands instead of its wider implementation.
As far as the roles and the responsibilities of the new institutions are concerned, the irrigation department would retain the overall policy regulations and overseeing role.
The PIDA as an autonomous entity, could be responsible for the functions of the irrigation department with emphasis on improving irrigation performance, optimizing water use efficiency, introducing the concept of participatory management, undertaking measures to improve assessment and collection of water rates and making the authority self-sustaining.
The area water board would perform most of the above irrigation functions at the canal command level and would also adopt and implement programmes aimed at promoting the formation and growth of farmer organizations (FOs).
The farmer organizations would be expected to operate and manage the minors and distributaries in their jurisdiction to obtain irrigation water from the area water board at the head of the distributary and supply it to their members, assess and collect water charges from water users and perform any other functions assigned to them.
The role of On-Farm Water Management has to be reoriented towards formation of farmers organizations and provision of knowledge and skills to the farmers for improved water management and water use-production technologies.
The ministry of food, agriculture and livestock is also working on the development of an irrigation campaign in the private sector by providing training to unemployed agricultural engineers. These campaigns provide services to the farmers for designing and installation of irrigation systems, including sprinkler and drip systems. -APP
