ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The Asian Development Bank has asked the government to prepare the ADB-financed water projects in line with its `water policy’ to ensure timely disbursement of funds for building dams in the country.

The bank, according to official sources, wants the government to invest more in water-related projects so that adequate amount of water is available for human consumption, agriculture and hydro power generation.

The sources said the ADB believed that "political instability and increased insecurity could prevent project implementation".

The bank said that various provincial departments involved in project preparation must work in coordination to achieve the desired results.

The government has also been urged by the bank to ensure dams’ sustainability and economic return by exploring the range of models for irrigation development.

The sources said the ADB had been informed that the majority of existing small dams focused on irrigation and that benefits achieved from other uses of water were often ignored, undervalued or incorporated at a later date for additional cost.

Slow and inadequate development of irrigated agriculture in the cultivable command area is said to be a major concern for the economic performance of small dams projects. The main reason was delays in developing watercourses and preparing farmland for irrigation and difficulties in adopting higher value irrigated cropping systems.

The government also acknowledged that farmers having no experience of irrigated agriculture and scarce financial resources had been left on their own to develop watercourses and organise water distribution at high costs.

Small dams projects were initiated in Pakistan in 1961 and the country received support from the ADB in the mid-1980s.