PESHAWAR, Sept 9: A programme monitoring unit (PMU) has been set up at the chief minister secretariat for monitoring implementation of the national programme for improvement of watercourses. The PMU, which will be directly responsible to the NWFP chief minister, has been established to implement the directives of President Pervez Musharraf for effective monitoring of initiatives for watercourse-improvement.

Nasir Mehmood Khosa has been appointed project director of federal PMU, Shah Rukh Arbab provincial coordinator and Javed Marwat deputy provincial coordinator. Six officers have been nominated to monitor the project, said a press release issued here on Friday by the PMU, NWFP.

A campaign coordinator has been assigned the task of projecting the programme in the media.

NWFP has been divided into six zones for monitoring and one monitoring officer has been appointed for each zone.

A monitoring team visited Khoat division and met the water management authorities at Hangu.

They disclosed that for the fiscal 2004-2005 they had been given a target of completion of 30 watercourses and they completed 35 water courses. For 2005-2006, the target is 60 and of which five watercourses have been completed so far. 20 watercourses were in the process of completion, the press statement said.

The monitoring teams visited the Doaba, the Iffat Banda, the Zanki Banda, the Toru and the Maho Dheri of Mardan district and inspected the completed watercourses.

The water management authorities at Mardan district disclosed to the teams that they had completed 43 watercourses in the last fiscal and 60 watercourses would be completed in the current year.