ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a sum of $2.67 billion under the country strategy and programme update (CSPU) during the year 2004-06 for 26 farm projects having an instalment of $890 million per annum.

This was stated by country director ADB Marshuk Ali Shah in a presentation at the national workshop on "Water, dams and development", organized by the international foundation for progress in collaboration with department of irrigation and power, government of Sindh, and the ministry of water and power here on Wednesday.

Mr Shah said the bank would focus on rural development and employment generation to ensure that the growth was pro-poor. He said an important addition proposed in ADB's strategy in this regard was its re-engagement in the water sector through province-focused projects on water conservation, drought mitigation and rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure.

Highlighting various aspects of water resources, including shortfall in the time to come, he said Pakistan would have to face a shortfall of 11.3 million acre feet (MAF) for irrigation by 2025 due to the increasing agricultural demands if new water reservoirs were not built on time.

Pointing out reasons of the shortfall, he said declining water resources and capacity to store water, increase in urban demand from 4.3 MAF to 12.1 MAF by 2025, high water losses and inefficient use of water were the main factors.

He said the ADB had provided a total of $13.550 billion in public sector lending since 1968 after the approval of 198 loans for hundreds of projects in various sectors, including the ongoing loans for 40 projects like irrigation and flood programmes, agriculture, water supply and sanitation and hydro power energy.

Highlighting the importance of dams, he said dams were one of the many instruments used for managing water resources and water was the lifeline for development of agriculture-based economies such as Pakistan.

The country's 16.2 million hectares of irrigated land supply more than 90 per cent of the value of agricultural production. Pakistan's Indus River basin represents the world's largest contiguous irrigated system with large investments over the last two centuries in barrages, link canals and 44 major canal command areas.-APP