HYDERABAD: World Bank’s Global Director Saroj Kumar Jha has said that WB is committed to bringing qualitative change in people’s lives wherever it has funded projects.

He was speaking at a meeting held at the Sindh Irrigation & Drainage Authority (Sida) on Tuesday.

According to a Sida press release, he wondered whether a master plan for water usage was available in Sindh. He held that it would be difficult to take decisions regarding water sector in the absence of the plan.

Mr Jha explained that the master plan would help understand nature of the works to be executed on a priority basis. It would also help ensure availability of required quantum of water to the agriculture sector.

The WB official called for analysing impact of the projects executed with the bank’s funding as far as people’s standard of life was concerned.

Sida Managing Director Pritam Das told the meeting that Sindh did not have any such master plan. However, he added, a water policy was there as a guide to water usages and priorities.

“Sindh government formulates water policy in the light of federal government’s water policy,” he said, and informed the WB official that the national water policy document used to be signed by all chief ministers. He said that Sindh did not have a drainage system in the left bank areas.

Sida’s GM (transition) Ghulam Mustafa Ujjan informed the meeting that the Authority was established in 1997 to promote participatory irrigation system. Sida has completed its Farm Water Management Programme, National Drainage Programme and Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project, according to Mr Ujjan. He said that Sida was now working on the Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation (SWAT).

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2024