ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: The Balochistan government has submitted to the Planning Commission for approval the revised Rs2.2 billion Extension of Pat Feeder Canal project.

Official sources told Dawn here on Saturday that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali “has assured the provincial government” that the project will be approved any time soon.

The National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt) Limited has prepared the revised PC-1 pro forma of the project in accordance with the Water Accord of 1991. The WAPDA is the sponsoring agency of the project, to be executed by the irrigation and power department of Balochistan.

The main objective of the project is to utilize the full perennial share of Balochistan in Indus water for the benefit of agriculture. The project also seeks to bring canal water to parts of Karachi plains where drought and adverse groundwater conditions are making life untenable.

The Extension of Pat Feeder Canal project will provide reliable irrigation supplies to an additional area of 159,000 acres in the Kachhi plain. This area of Balochistan is considered extremely fertile and capable of producing high yields of food and cash crops provided the irrigation supplies are available.

The project area lies in the Kachhi plain of Balochistan at a distance of 300km from Quetta in the south-east direction. Kachhi plain is the only area of the province which can be commanded from the Indus river by gravity. The project is located wholly in Prime Minister Jamali’s Jaffarabad district.

Groundwater in the project area is brackish/saline and deep. The Balochistan government maintains that there is hardly any tubewell in the area and the Pat Feeder Canal water, let out at its tail into the channels, is the only source for drinking water.

It is said that cultivation of crops in the province totally depends upon the limited irrigation supplies which are available from the Pat Feeder canal during peak supply months or the surplus available from the existing Pat feeder command area.

Farmers are mostly using primitive style of farming which does not generate reasonable production. The annual average rainfall is only 102mm which is too little to support profitable cultivation of crops.