KARACHI, Jan 12: A high-level meeting held here on Wednesday to review the progress of the National Programme for the Implementation of Watercourses (NPIW) decided to appoint the additional secretary , irrigation and power, as the focal person at provincial level so that the problems being faced by the concerned officials in the implementation of the NPIW could be resolved.

The meeting also decided that all DCOs would act as focal persons of their respective districts. The meeting, chaired by Chief Secretary Mohammad Aslam Sanjrani, reviewed the pace of work on watercourse lining and the overall performance of the NPIW in Sindh.

The meeting was told that a total of 3,438 applications had been received as against the target of 2,794 watercourses. It decided to reactivate the scheme with the help of Sindh information department.

The meeting took notice of the shortage of staff in Shikarpur, Sanghar, Umerkot and Ghotki districts. It was told that the process of appointing staff and imparting training to them was underway since October last. Experts' services were being hired to verify the design estimates and sanctions, besides technical supervision, in the construction of watercourses.

The Programme Monitoring Unit of the CM Secretariat informed the meeting that according to the PC-1, the number of watercourses in 16 districts was 42,313, but the number in final inventories was 44,858, which showed an excess of 2,544 watercourses.

The chief secretary lauded all DCOs' performance in this regard and hoped that further steps would be taken for the implementation of the project so that adequate water could be supplied to cultivators. He directed the power and water officials to extend their cooperation in this regard.

Those who attended the meeting included ACS (Development) Ghulam Sarwar Khero, Irrigation Secretary Sabhago Khan Jatoi, Finance Secretary Malik Israr Hussain, CM's Secretary Dr Mohammad Ali, Karachi DCO Fazalur Rehman and Project Director Mohammad Younus Dagha. -PPI