PESHAWAR, Aug 9: The NWFP government has decided to curtail powers of patwaris (record-keepers of lands) and replacing the provincial irrigation department with the ‘Frontier Irrigation and Drainage Agency (Fida),’ sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government adopted the Fida Bill, 2005, in the last assembly session. Eight years ago, the assembly had passed the Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authority Act, 1997, to reorganise the irrigation system, but it could not be enforced for various reasons.

The existing century-old system, based on canals networking introduced by their Sikhs and later adopted by the British successors, has failed to cater to the needs of the farming community. In the early period of this system, small streams were taken out from rivers to irrigate the land along the river bank.

The establishment of the proposed (Fida) agency, transfer of responsibilities to the area water boards and involvement of farmers’ organisations in the system will help bring old corrupt practices to an end, the sources said.

The sources said that ‘reforms in the irrigation system and the drainage sector in the province are part of a global movement for increased end-user responsibilities and farmer participation in the irrigation management and towards financial and operational autonomy for the service (irrigation/drainage) providers.’

The reform is meant to establish effective, efficient and sustainable organisations at the provincial, regional and local levels. The proposed agency will be responsible for managing the system from barrages to canal headworks where the authority, which has already established the Swat Canal Area Water Board at Mardan, will set up four area water boards.

The entire system, in the west of the River Indus, will be managed by the four AWBs — Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu and Swat, which would be established in due course of time.

This three-tier infrastructure will be responsible for the management of the entire system. The important aspects of the new organisations are autonomy, cost effectiveness, transparency, accountability and customer orientation.

The purpose is to deliver professional services like irrigation water delivery and disposal of effluent of drains.

Fida, the first tier in the proposed system, will be responsible for operation and maintenance of the barrages, tubewells, branch canals, minors, distributaries, watercourses and outlets. It will also be responsible for the distribution of irrigation water along with the construction and later operation and maintenance of major drains.

The agency will supervise the flood protection infrastructure along the Indus river. It will be supervised by a board in which farmers would play an important role. Apart from farmers, there will be independent members on the board from specialised fields like agriculture, finance, rural sociology and social development. The Fida managing director will report to the board.

The area water boards will be responsible for the management of main canals, tubewells

and other irrigation infrastructures. They will receive water from Fida at the barrages and supply it to the farmer organisations.

The farmer organisations – the third tier —will manage distributaries and minors and will take care of the distribution of water to farmers. They will maintain distributaries, minors and watercourses and collect water charges (abiana) from farmers.