ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: The government has decided to merge water and agriculture related ministries, their attached bodies and provincial irrigation departments for an integrated and coordinated planning of agriculture projects.

Official sources told Dawn that a decision to this effect had been taken at the highest-level that would soon be implemented through formal sessions of the inter-provincial coordination committee and federal cabinet.

The sources said the president had directed the authorities concerned to finalise a National Drainage Accord at the earliest that would need to be signed by all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir after approval of the inter-provincial committee for implementation over the next 25 years.

A commission comprising one member from each province is being appointed to complete a 25-year Master Drainage Plan within a period of next nine months. This body would also initiate the process of formulation of National Drainage Accord and building consensus among the four provinces on the question of disputed schemes.

Under the plan approved by President Gen Musharraf, the water wing of the ministry of water and power would be merged into the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock.

At the provincial level, the departments of agriculture and irrigation would be merged into expanded provincial irrigation and agricultural authorities with chairmen of an additional chief secretary level as their heads.

A permanent commission on water and agriculture would be established under the chairmanship of the federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock to develop vision and strategy for water and agriculture initiatives and steer their implementation.

A separate team of the national experts, comprising private sector experts on water, irrigation and agriculture would be formed to provide technical input to the commission. The team would be made responsible for ensuring that research and consultancy outputs integrate into the plans of new projects.

Programme steering committees at the federal and provincial levels which are already in place have been directed to meet more frequently to improve coordination and maintain checks and balances for water and agriculture related projects in future.

The institutional capability and capacity of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Commission would be productively used for coordination or research relating to integrated agriculture, including waterlogging, salinity and water management for agriculture.

All these steps would be made part of the 25-year perspective plan that was finalised in 1993 to restore environmentally sustainable irrigated agriculture throughout Pakistan with special focus on the Indus Basin. The plan aims primarily at minimising saline drainable surplus and to facilitate the eventual evacuation of saline effluent from Indus Basin to the Arabian Sea.