HYDERABAD, Feb 8: District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has urged the federal government to revise the implementation strategy of the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses.
He was speaking at a farmers’ awareness programme and cheques distribution ceremony at the Circuit House here on Tuesday. The nazim suggested lining of the full length of 30 per cent watercourses, instead of lining 30 per cent length of each watercourse, in phases.
He said that under the present strategy, 15 per cent length of watercourses in fresh water areas and 30 per cent length in brackish water areas were being lined. He said this had not only created problems for farmers but had also decreased the pace of the work. He maintained that partially lined watercourses would not provide full benefits to farmers.
He said he had asked officers concerned of the district government to prepare a draft paper of his recommendations for forwarding it to the quarters concerned.
Mr Jamil claimed that these recommendations had also been endorsed by the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Sindh Abadgar Board and other stakeholders. He said he would personally take up the matter with the federal government.
About nomination of districts for best performance award under the watercourse programme, he supported the stand of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and the Sindh Abadgar Board and rejected nominations made by a committee at its first meeting without evaluating the work of all districts. He said giving awards to growers was a good step to encourage them but justice should be done to competitors. He said that Hyderabad had fertile lands, literate people and a big agro-based market but it had been deprived to compete for the award.
The nazim said the district government had decided to make Hyderabad a model district of Sindh in respect of development. Under this strategy, the education department had achieved the target and health and agriculture departments were about to achieve the status of being number one in the province on account of their performances, he claimed.
He said efficient utilization of available water resources was the only way to end water shortage in the province.
He said the watercourse lining programme was aimed at controlling water losses through seepage to the extent of 30 to 40 per cent which was degrading fertile land by increasing ground water level and depriving tail-end growers of their due share of water.
Mr Jamil said that against 54 targeted watercourses, 164 applications had been received from farmers for lining of watercourses. He said 10 watercourses had been completed and earth work on 33 watercourses was in progress, adding that by the end of March, 26 more watercourses would be completed and the remaining watercourses would be lined before the end of June.
He asked farmers’ associations to use their funds on watercourses as soon as they receive it to avoid price escalation and get maximum benefit of the scheme.
Sindh Chamber of Agriculture chairman Syed Qamar Zaman Shah advised the government to make departments of agriculture and irrigation equally responsible to avoid flaws being witnessed in construction works.
