KARACHI, Aug 24: The World Bank-funded National Programme for Improvement of Water Courses in Sindh is aimed at increasing agricultural production by 30 per cent.

The cost of the project, which envisages replacing the existing mud-water courses with concrete drains, is over Rs3 billion for the province.

The total WB funding for the project in all the four provinces is over Rs10 billion.

In Sindh, the project envisages improvement of 29,000 water courses, of which 11,000 have been constructed.

Abdul Rasheed, a WB consultant, told Dawn that the courses were being built by special bricks made through ‘parabolic’ system to ensure long life of such courses.

The parabolic blocks replace the existing locally made red bricks, which not only absorb water but also give in quickly due to saline water.

Secretary of Agriculture Sindh Mohkamuddin Qadri told Dawn that the Sindh government was financing cost of consultancy of the project.

He said the improvement of water courses will increase flow of water in the drains and water will reach the farms situated at the tail-end of the water course.

He said that the concrete water courses would also prevent loss of water earlier absorbed the by mud drains. The increased supply of water to the greater number of farms would definitely result in an increase in production, he added.

Mr Rasheed pointed out that the project aimed at increasing farmers income has also generated employment for local people as a number of brick factories have been set up in the areas to provide supplies to the project.

Workers and corner meetings have been arranged to educate farmers on importance of the project, which is aimed at bringing prosperity to farmers through increased productivity.

M/s Mot McDonald Pakistan (MMP) are the consultants for the project whose engineers regularly visit the project and submit verification reports to sponsors .

The revolutionary project, which is being implemented in all districts of Sindh, was started in March 2004 and is due for completion in June 2008.

A presentation on the project was made to President Gen Pervez Musharraf , who had greatly appreciated the programme destined to bring prosperity in rural areas of the country.

Shortage of water is the main problem for development of agriculture and increased productivity in the province.

The project will go along way in conserving precious reserves of water and will promote optimum use of water for crops.

The project will augment the ministry of agriculture’s efforts to boost crop productivity in the province.

It has recently started a project in collaboration with Suparco to arrange satellite pictures of crops to determine their exact size to eliminate speculations about the size of cash crops.