PRIME Minister Shaukat Aziz has ordered an inquiry into the delays and cost overruns of the Kachhi canal in Balochistan. Because of the diverging views of the Planning Commission and the water and power ministry, the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission (PMIC) is likely to investigate into the matter.

The Planning Commission feels that an independent inquiry should be conducted instead of assigning it to the sponsoring agency, which may also have to share the responsibility for the delays and cost overruns.

The Commission has suggested that a cell should be set in the ministry of water and power to directly monitor the progress of mega-water projects on a continuous basis so that technical faults and implementation problems could be resolved or brought to the notice of the government without delay.

Sources within the government attribute these delays to the law and order situation in the province, particularly in arid regions of Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Kachhi district—the proposed command area of the project.

But the law and order has not been the single important cause for the delays and cost increases. The project was started in 2002 when the security situation in the province was not so volatile. It is the poor planning and faulty monitoring that actually put the project in doldrums.

Started in October 2002, the project was to be completed by June 2008. On September 13, 2003, the executive committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) considered the summary submitted by the Planning & Development Division and approved the project at a cost of Rs31.204 billion without any foreign exchange component.

The project cost, according to Wapda estimates, had increased to about Rs70 billion because it was started without proper planning and did not meet relevant procedural codes. The completion date is unknown now.

Since its very beginning, the project has been suffering from cost overruns and slow implementation. Initially, it was proposed that canal would be drawn from River Indus at Mithan Kot through construction of a new barrage at that point. After incorporating massive modifications in the previous design, it was decided that the canal would be drawn from ‘Taunsa Barrage.’

The modified 500 km long canal will be the longest canal in Pakistan. It is 250 miles longer than previously designed. It now stretches between Punjab and Balochistan— 300km in Punjab and 200 km in Balochistan, with 2,000 km long distributaries and minors.

According to some experts, slow down-flow of water with reduced velocity, greater seepage and extra expenses on construction, maintenance and supervision of the canal are the new drawbacks in the modified project.

The first leg of the project comprises construction of the canal from the Taunsa Barrage, with a flowing capacity of 6,000 cusecs. Initially, the canal would run on a half yearly basis, but after the construction of more water storages in the upper regions, it would flow throughout the year. The scope of work envisages construction of 500 km of main canal with 6,000 cusecs capacity at the head reach, 2,000 Km of distributaries/minors, head regulator on right bank of Indus river at Taunsa barrage, 18 flood carrier channels, construction of 1067 km of water courses, installation of 15 inch dia Pacca Naccas, 20 inch dia pipe, construction of 1,560 culverts and land levelling of 86,600 ha.

For the project, a barrage is proposed to be built across the Indus at Mithan Kot, from which a gravity-flow canal will be constructed to irrigate about 513,000 acres of land in the Kachhi plain, along the right bank of the Pat Feeder Canal. The project is aimed at providing sustainable irrigation water supply to 7,13,000 acres of agricultural land so as to increase agricultural production and uplift the socio-economic condition of the inhabitants.

The future canal would not be a seasonal irrigation channel. It would be a perennial canal as 0.821 MAF unutilised share of Balochistan from Patfeeder canal project would be re-directed to the project through Taunsa Barrage. The decision to make it a perennial was made by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on the request of Balochistan which wanted to use the flood supplies under the Water Apportionment Accord.

The project is expected to enhance agricultural activities from two to 46 per cent in the area. An estimated 0.713 million acres of land will be irrigated from the project. Its first phase is aimed at supplying about 1.5 million acre feet (MAF) of water out of flood flows of Indus River and from the province’s share in perennial flows.

Agriculture will receive power and development momentum from the project. Kachhi and Naseerabad are the most fertile areas of province. In the first phase, the cropping intensity will be raised to 46 per cent. The second phase will equate the cropping intensity in the command area of the Katchi canal to that of Patfeeder. This command area may be developed as cotton-growing area that can produce, according to rough estimates, six million bales of finest quality cotton.

Livestock which is permanently dependant upon grazing in rangelands, will be provided water. During winter, farmers living in central Balochistan migrate with their flocks to lower lands in Sibi and Kachhi plains for the purpose of grazing their flocks.

Approximately 0.2 million people would get jobs with construction of this reservoir. The project will have a significant impact on the lives of local people. It will improve the socio-economic conditions of flock-owners. This project will help tap tremendous potential in production of small ruminants, sheep and goats in eastern Balochistan.

Though the cost of the project has risen from Rs31.2 billion to over Rs70 billion, the prime minister was informed that the canal’s phase-I would be competed in 2008. If properly managed and expanded, the scheme would help bring barren tracts under cultivation.