ADB to extend $86.41mln for KP canal project

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has entered a loan agreement with the government of Pakistan to extend $86.41 million for Pehur High Level Canal project in Swabi and Nowshehra districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a statement said on Friday. 

Xiaohong Yang, ADB’s Country Director for Pakistan, and Tariq Mahmood Pasha, secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD) inked the accord in the presence of the finance minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar. Later, Tariq Rashid, secretary Irrigation Department KP, co-signed the project agreement with the ADB’s country director.

“The project will target three major agriculture domains in KP and help increase availability of water for agriculture, improve farmers’ water-usage skills, build farm management capacity, and facilitate project management support,” Dar said addressing the signing ceremony.

The finance minister lauded the ADB for extending assistance for the project, and their continued support and partnership for development schemes in Pakistan’s various sectors of economy especially agriculture sector.

“The project is expected to increase farm incomes and incomes of on-farm households engaged in agriculture in arid zones of the KP,” the finance minister emphasised. The finance minister highlighted that the agriculture sector registered 3.46 percent growth during FY 2016-17, as a result of the Prime Minister’s agriculture package and extraordinary measures approved in the budget for FY 2016-17. “The government’s support for the agriculture sector will continue during the current fiscal year,” Dar stressed.

ADB’s Yang, in her speech to the ceremony, said the project would help support agriculture output and raise income opportunities of the farming families in the KP province.    “Bolstering water resource management is an important step to increase farm productivity across Pakistan,” the country director of the bank observed.

Yang also noted that she was pleased to sign her first agreement since assuming her office in Pakistan.  According to the statement, the project will build on the earlier phase of the Pehur High Level Canal developed with ADB’s assistance by further increasing the availability of water to farmers through new irrigation canals and pipelines over 65 km long and improving the water-usage efficiency and farm management capacity to secure the province’s food security targets.

The ADB, in the statement, said that agriculture remains a vital sector in the KP province, where it contributes to 18 percent to the province’s overall gross domestic product, with over 37 percent of people directly employed in the sector’s activities. 

“The project will cut poverty and increase economic well-being and job opportunities for about 75,000 people in the new irrigated area of 8,727 hectares in the two districts,” it added. 

It must be noted here that the total project cost is $96.60 million, with the government of Pakistan contributing $10.2 million. The estimated project implementation period is six years. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s irrigation department is the executing agency responsible for overall project implementation.

The project envisages construction of irrigation system in Janda Boka-Malikabad area and Indus Ambar area, along with construction of on-farm level irrigation canals in both areas. 

Interventions through this project will involve construction of the irrigation system in JandaBoka-Malikabad area and Indus Amber area, along with construction of on-farm level irrigation canals in both areas (20 water courses in Janda Boka-Malikabad and 86 water courses in Indus Amber area).

Approximately 100 demonstration plots will be developed for high irrigation efficiency, profitable farming and training on farmer practices to approximately 106 water user associations and farmers. The project is expected to be completed by June 2023.