ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: As many as 5,014 watercourses in the country have been improved under the president’s programme for improvement of watercourses. A meeting of the federal steering committee held to review the progress in the implementation of the programme here on Saturday expressed satisfaction over the fact that the number of improved water courses exceeded the target of 5,000 during the year 2004-05, says a press release.

An amount of Rs6 billion has been allocated for the programme in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2005-06. The meeting decided to release funds immediately for the first two quarters to ensure smooth execution of the programme.

The meeting was presided over by Secretary Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mohammad Ismail Qureshi and attended by the secretaries of agriculture, project directors of the programme management units and directors-general of water management of all provinces and other areas.

The province and area-wise breakdown of the watercourses is: Punjab 2,541 watercourses, Sindh 255, NWFP 1265, Balochistan 711, AJK 76, Fata 131 and Federally-Administered Northern Areas (Fana) 35.

Punjab and the NWFP exceeded the targets fixed for them last year. For the year 2005-06, a target 15,050 watercourses’ improvement has been set for all the provinces and other areas.

Sindh and the Islamabad capital territory were asked to accelerate their efforts to achieve the targets so that farmers could get more water.