PESHAWAR, Dec 23: The federal government has granted Rs8.4 billion for the water management development project in the NWFP. The project would be completed over a period of four years.

This was stated by Rabnawaz Khan, Director On-Farm Water Management Development Programme, NWFP, on the occasion of the launching ceremony of the training of the water management officers in collaboration with the provincial government at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) here on Thursday.

He said 42 teams would be constituted to monitor the progress of the project in terms of improvement of agronomy, in general, and to ensure the better utilization of water resources in each district, in particular.

Dr Zahid Mehmood, Chairman of the Agricultural Engineering Department of the UET, said a total of 89 graduates had been selected by the directorate of water management, 41 of whom had done BSc in agricultural engineering from the UET, Peshawar, and 48 are agricultural graduates from the Agriculture University, Peshawar.

They would be trained for one month at the UET to improve their knowledge in water management, he added. After completion of the training, they would be posted in different capacities under the project. On the occasion, UET Registrar Col (retired) Imtiaz Ahmad Durrani said the UET was rich in technical and human resources.