20000211

Devolution of power

plan being started

in agri sector: Safdar

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: Punjab Governor, Lt. Gen. Mohammad Safdar (Retd) has said that the first stage for the implementation of devolution of power programme is being started in the agriculture sector with the empowering of farmers for control and supervision of irrigation system in the Punjab.

Inaugurating two-day orientation workshop on institutional reforms organised by the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Pida) in Faisalabad here on Thursday, he said agriculture was the main stay of our economy, but there were many challenges ahead that were needed to be tackled.

Pinpointing the unarrested population growth and stagnation in food production as major impediments hampering our pace of development, the governor said agriculture and irrigation were closely inter-linked with each other. He mentioned Indus Basin as Indus Food Machine for Pakistan and said that we could harvest multiple benefits by systematic development of the available irrigation system.

However, he said the existing irrigation system would be completely dilapidated within next 30 years, if it was not properly maintained.

Numerating the root causes of declining trends in irrigation system, the governor said that financial constraints, social degradation and administrative discrepancies have further aggravated the crisis. He said insufficient income and inappropriate economic system was yet another cause of the deferred maintenance of canals.

Underlining the importance of an effective and efficient irrigation system for the consolidation of agriculture sector, the governor said Pida had been constituted and necessary institutional reforms were being implemented by involving the farmers in the management of the irrigation system.

Area Water Boards (AWB) are being formed to control and implement the distribution of canal water and maintenance of the water courses.

The first AWB had been set up in Lower Chenab Canal (East) on experimental basis, he said and hoped that its success would pave way for the expansion of this system in other parts of the province. However, the farmers organisations of the distributory level would be given due representation and necessary powers to bring about a positive improvement in the system.

He also stressed the need of awareness among the farming community and hoped that would actively participate in these bodies and play their dynamic role for the improvement of the irrigation system. The governor assured full support and help to the farmers for the success of the new irrigation system based on mutual cooperation and collaboration.

The governor also announced the formation of AWBs and prayed success for the new community-based irrigation system. He also distributed certificates among the private members of the first Area Water Boards formed for LCC (E). He said similarly, the powers would also be transferred to the people in resolving their issues of local nature.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Suleman Ghani, Managing Director, Pida, said that the Punjab has one of the biggest and integrated irrigation system in the world. It has 14 barrages, 3,993 miles canals and 19,191 distributaries irrigating 21 million acres of land though 50,000 water holes in the Punjab.

This system worked satisfactorily up to 1970 increasing annual irrigation ratio from 70 percent to 120 percent. However, it started degenerating due to multiple reasons and affecting our precious productive and fertile lands.

He said that the National Drainage Programme was chalked out to control salinity and water logging and increase agricultural production. Pida was constituted under the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Act 1997. Under this system, AWBs were being formed at the canal and FOs at the distributory level involving the farmers of the areas.

He said the first LCC(E) Water Board has been constituted on a part of Lower Chenab Canal with discharge of 11,700 cusecs. This canal is irrigating 1.6 million acres of land in the districts of Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura.