ISLAMABAD, March 7: A cash-for-work programme initiated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped clear two badly-blocked irrigation canals in Battagram district and provided the much-needed water to 750 farmers and their families.

Canal portions measuring up to nine kilometres have been cleared and 810 acres of cultivable land have been given water access.

The cash-for-work programme allows residents of Battagram district to grow crops for their own use as well as for the market.

Last October’s earthquake played havoc with local infrastructure.

Mounds of rubble fell into irrigation canals that snaked from nearby streams through the town’s markets and into surrounding farm land. Already struggling with silt deposits, the canals became choked and flooded some fields and ran dry in others.

Preoccupied with emergency arrangements for shelter and provisions, local farmers could not afford to take up the task of clearing the water canals.

As the spring planting season approached, the canals needed immediate rehabilitation.

To clear the irrigation system in time for planting rice and wheat and to provide much-needed buying power to local residents, USAID-funded a pilot programme that envisaged the hiring of residents to clear water canals around Battagram.

USAID partner Save the Children worked with the local department of water management to identify the worst-hit canals.

Clearing work is currently under way in a third canal. About 30 men work on a canal six days a week, making between Rs200 and Rs300 rupees a day as supervisors.

Many are farmers who benefit directly from the free flow of water as well as from the earnings from the programme.