Project-related activities in the World Bank (WB)-funded Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation (SWAT) project — another multi-billion-rupee WB-funded project aimed at transforming Sindh’s water and agriculture sectors — are set to pick up pace this year.
The project — the third in a series of major foreign-funded projects in the last 15 years — focuses on achieving enhanced productivity and improved water resource management in the province. Several other interventions, including digitisation of crop data, technical study of Sukkur barrage’s right bank areas, smart subsidies, etc, are part of the project.
SWAT encompasses policy-level decisions, including a new integrated irrigation law, coupled with the reshaping of the provincial irrigation department with a broader outlook. The new law, which is likely to disband the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) in its present shape, was being drafted in consultation with stakeholders before it was tabled in the Sindh Assembly for passage.
Sindh’s irrigation and agriculture sectors have witnessed identical projects like the Water Sector Improvement Project, which wound up in 2020, the Sindh Agriculture Growth Project (SAGP) and the Sindh Irrigated Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project.
Yet another World Bank-funded water programme works to resolve Sindh’s scarcity issues
This newest one will start from where these projects ended; SWAT will support province-wide activities, including integrated water resources management for the agriculture sector and policy reforms necessary to achieve project objectives.
The Sindh government has already adopted the Agriculture Policy 2018-2030 in line with the SAGP, which was aimed at achieving four to five per cent agriculture growth per annum. The policy was formulated after the agriculture sector was devolved to provinces in the wake of the 18th Amendment. The Sindh Water Policy was adopted by the provincial government in July 2023, following the passage of the National Water Policy in 2018.
The above-mentioned three WB-funded projects addressed, to some extent, water-course lining issues, the provision of land levellers, and high-efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS) such as drip irrigation, and productivity enhancement in rice, onion, chilli, and dates, as well as in the livestock sector.
This year, according to the SWAT (water component) Project Director (PD), Jamal Mangan, physical execution of works in at least six minor/distributary channels, in addition to the relining/rehabilitation of Akram Wah, is to take place at a cost of Rs21bn.
Akram Wah, a left-bank canal of Kotri barrage, was the only lined channel in Sindh until recently, feeding areas up to the Badin district. Currently, interventions are being implemented in the command areas of three minor water boards — one each in Nara, Ghotki, and the Left Bank area water boards.
The total cost of the SWAT was worked out at Rs70.45 trillion, with a major chunk, ie Rs35.79tr, diverted to the agriculture sector. The Planning & Development component also involves a cost of Rs6.23tr. The Sindh government has pitched in Rs6.42tr and is to be completed in December 2028.
The project also envisaged interventions in the watercourse lining, the provision of HEIS and a solar system, and laser land levellers on a 60-40pc cost-sharing basis with farmers. Disbursements have already begun under the following subcomponents: water service delivery, agricultural subsidies and investments, project coordination and monitoring, and flood emergency response.
SWAT’s Flood Emergency Recovery Component deals with cash subsidy disbursement of farmers, affected by the 2022 unprecedented rains, when the government had announced Rs5,000 per acre support for wheat cultivation for small farmers having one to 12 acres of landholdings in three phases.
The project would be executed in areas falling within the jurisdiction of three area water boards (AWBs) managed by SIDA, with Ghotki Feeder, Nara, and Left Bank AWBs, respectively, managed through the Guddu, Sukkur, and Kotri barrages of Sindh.
These activities were to be seen in areas of 15 farmers’ organisations established under the Sindh Water Management Ordinance 2002, which led to the creation of SIDA to promote a participatory irrigation system.
The project would focus on oilseed crops as well to lessen the burden of importing edible oil. According to the Agriculture Sector PD, Imdad Sohu, oilseed crops, including sunflower, mustard and canola, were preferred under this project.
“These are water-thrifty high-value crops, and we plan to attract farmers towards these crops through cash transfers for seed and fertilisation,” he said. In addition, he explained, lentil and chickpea cultivation were to be promoted. According to PD, another important task under the project was a soil salinity survey in the province’s nine districts.
He added that 2,000 acres of land were to be reclaimed through targeted farmers’ organisations by cultivating salt-tolerant species in the concerned FOs. For this purpose, the agriculture extension department has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Mehran University’s US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Water.
Watercourse lining would be achieved by farmers sharing 20pc of the cost and the government absorbing 80pc. Lining of watercourses up to 30pc of the length of a watercourse was achieved in different projects to ensure water conservation. According to one government figure, Sindh has around 47,000 watercourses. Sindh’s farmers’ bodies were to be taken on board for these project initiatives.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 1st, 2026
