AN important drainage project — Right Bank Outfall Drain — whose timely completion would have improved the soil condition in Sindh, has suffered inordinate delays and enormous cost overruns. And the main reason for the delay is the slow disbursement of funds.

The project’s completion is not in sight, while cost overruns continue to mount. According to some reports, the three phases of RBOD would now be completed at a cost of Rs70bn. The phases — RBOD-I, RBOD-II and RBOD-III — are meant to carry effluent from upper Sindh and Balochistan to the Arabian Sea through Gharo Creek in Thatta district. Barring RBOD-II, the two other parts are being executed by Wapda.

The Sindh government is executing RBOD-II through the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). This part is primarily designed to bypass Manchar Lake — Asia’s biggest freshwater body. It would carry effluent from RBOD-I, known as the Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain, from Karampur village in the Sehwan area of Jamshoro to the sea.

The 273km-long RBOD-II, initially estimated to cost Rs14bn, was to be completed in 2006. Work on it had started in 2001. After delays, its cost was revised to Rs29bn, targeted to be completed in 2008. With 70pc of the work completed, the project’s cost is now at Rs45bn, and Rs25bn has been spent on it so far.

These expenditures are sent to the federal government for approval, as the project is part of the PSDP, just like RBOD-I and RBOD-III, which are reportedly 85 and 80pc complete respectively.

The RBOD-II’s execution through FWO instead of Wapda was approved owing to the latter’s questionable performance in the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD). Slow fund releases during financial years 2008-09 to 2010-11 largely affected progress. However, allocations subsequently improved from 2011-12 to 2013-14.

‘It was design failure in the case of the Left Bank Outfall Drain, as stated in a World Bank study. For the Right Bank Outfall Drain, it has been a total execution failure’

Meanwhile, Balochistan’s saline water component was added to the RBOD during Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s government, raising the carrying capacity to 3,500 cusecs from 2,271. Wapda sources point out that in case of RBOD-III, the water is saline and marginally saline and wastewater (1,200 cusecs in all) is to be channelled through two different routes.

The RBOD-I brings water from the Miro Khan pumping station in Qambar Shahdadkot district to Sehwan to fall into the RBDO-II through the Indus Link built by Wapda.

“In my view, it was a design failure in case of the LBOD, as stated in a World Bank study. In RBOD’s case, it has been a total execution failure,” commented Naseer Memon, who wrote extensively about issues facing the RBOD and LBOD projects and their implications. The RBOD project was subjected to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and its related flaws were addressed subsequently, he said.

Sindh suffers the most in case of heavy rains or flooding from Punjab and parts of Balochistan, as was witnessed in September 2013. It also serves as an outlet for floodwater or drainage wastewater to the sea. It is wastewater that has destroyed Manchar Lake, which was a source of livelihood for fishermen.

A leader of the farmers’ community, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, regretted that RBOD-II was delayed for no reasons and is still being delayed. “We consider it very important for upper Sindh’s farmland, which is hit by waterlogging and salinity, simply because we don’t have any drainage in these areas.”

Besides the RBOD, Wapda had designed a pilot project to treat RBOD water for its reuse under the directive of former President Asif Ali Zardari. The effluent treatment plant is to be installed 15km upstream Manchar Lake to treat 52 cusecs of saline water of RBOD at a cost of Rs3bn. Six such plants are to be set up in the three stages of RBOD. They would benefit farmers whose lands are located up and downstream RBOD for cultivation, as they don’t get irrigation water.

“With five to six such plants at a cost of Rs15-20bn each, we will be able to use this ‘wastewater’ instead of letting it flow into the sea. But again, delayed fund releases hamper progress. For instance, only Rs10m has been allocated in the PSDP against the demand of Rs2bn, which indicates the federal government’s lack of interest in the project.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, March 23rd , 2015

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