PM gives go ahead to food ministry's water conservation, other projects
Government will subsidize laser-levelers for all the provinces with emphasis on Sindh
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday gave a go-ahead to the Ministry of National Food Security & Research to develop three major projects for conservation of 9 MAF water through lining of the watercourse across the country and laser leveling of the fields, enhancement of 6,00,00 acres of command area of small and mini dams and water conservation in Barani areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Presiding over a meeting on water conservation at the PM Office, he said that these interventions are in line with the 100-day agenda of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government which includes massive expansion in water conservation efforts through smart interventions to reduce water losses.
The project "National Program for improvement of Watercourses in Pakistan Phase-II", would be undertaken across the country with a target of lining of over 73,000 watercourses and laser leveling of 12,110 units. It was decided that the Government will subsidize laser-levelers for all the provinces with emphasis on Sindh.
The prime minister was informed that an un-utilized command area of around 6,30,000 under small dams and mini dams can to be developed by scaling up pilot intervention made earlier by PARC and Agency for Barani Area Development Punjab.
He was informed that rain water conservation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa requires small investments in infrastructure and can be implemented through the local governments. These infrastructures include construction of check dams, water retaining facilities, water storage reservoirs, spurs, water ponds and terracing etc to harness rain water for its use in irrigation and other purposes.
