KARACHI – Despite completion of feasibility study, the Centre as well as the Provincial Government has not allocated funds to construct small dams for conserving water for drinking as well as irrigation purposes in Sindh, officials told The Nation on Sunday.
The Small Dams Organisation, which runs under the administrative control of Sindh Irrigation Department, has recently submitted the PC-1 with Planning and Development (P&D) Department for making availability of funds for construction of small dams and weirs over potential sites in Nagarparkar and Chharassar Nai of Sindh province.
According to brief of project, the scheme of proposed construction of small dams was an umbrella PC-1 costing Rs 12.211 billion which was conceptually cleared by CDWP last year.
However, the dams’ organisation of provincial Irrigation Department has estimated the cost of Rs 739.3 million for small dams and weirs over potential sites in Nagarparkar of Tharparkar distict and Chharassar Nai at Kohistan near Karachi of Sindh province. The civil cost of project is estimated at Rs 721.31, while installation of drip irrigation to be stood at Rs 18 million.
When contacted by The Nation, Chief of Sindh Small Dams Organisation Khalid Hyder Memon, who confirmed that his organisation had submitted the plan of construction of dams, but availability of funds was still a problem. He recalled that with the financial assistance of the Federal Government, the Sindh Government had conducted the feasibility study of 40 small dams in various parts of the province.
However, funds have not been earmarked for implementing the study into physical work for construction of small dams, he pointed out, adding the Sindh Small Dams Organisation repeatedly requested the Federal Government for allocation of funds for the project, but unfortunately the request had not been entertained so far.
He opined that the financial sources of Provincial Government were limited, so it wanted the funding be made available by central government for the small dams’ project.
Sharing the detail of the small dams’ concept, he said that besides constructing structure of the Nagarparkar and Chharassar Nai dams, the plan also envisaged to build a small canal from dams, which could fulfil the irrigational and drinking water requirements of the area. Meanwhile, the Provincial Planning and Development Department had already confirmed provision of Rs 700 million were available for Sindh with Government of Pakistan under Italian Swap Debt Assistance, which could be spent on the above project.