The World Bank-funded $155 million Punjab Barrages Improvement PhaseII Project will be completed by June 30 this year; however, the project is waiting for trained indigenous manpower to handle the newly adopted technology.
Despite Punjab Irrigation Department (PID) has created a new cadre of staff for operation but could not able to produce trained staff for handing the modernisation.
According to the documents available with Pakistan Today, the overarching project objectives are rehabilitating and modernising Jinnah Barrage and carrying out affiliated works to enable reliable and uninterrupted supply of water for over 2.1 million acres of farmland; build Punjab Irrigation and Power Department’s capacity in improved water resources and irrigation system management. However, the documents mention that almost all project components and activities were expected to be completed by June 30, 2017, the current closing date which once was revised for the same issue.
“The project has introduced new technology that is being adopted on all barrages in Punjab, including installation of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), system for operation of barrage gates, discharge monitoring, automated data collection and transmission, and installation of CCTV based surveillance systems.” The documents add that installation of real time flow monitoring (RTMF) system at key points of the irrigation system, development of water management models and a decision support system (DSS) to improve water resources management will be acquired.
Training of Irrigation Department staff to operate and maintain these systems satisfactorily are needed which was the part of the project.
The component of rehabilitation and modernisation of Jinnah Barrage, priced $111m, was not alone but another major component of $7 million was there for preparing project Management Coordination Technical Assistance and Training. The Improvement and modernization of the Irrigation and Water Management System had cost $15m while monitoring and evaluation of the Project Impact and Social and Environmental Management Plans is to be done by spending $3million.
The documents point out that the project has been already delayed for one year following the same reason of trained manpower. “This was the first extension in project closing date. The key justification for extension in project closing date is that the ongoing activity to install the new operations system and strengthen the institutional capacity of the PID is essential for successful management of barrages in Punjab starting with the Jinnah Barrage.
Specifically, the extension in closing date will allow government of Punjab to complete the activities of Testing, commissioning of SCADA system and capacity building of newly created cadre of PID staff for such works; to complete the pilot for inflatable rubber weir; install, operate and transfer along with training on the real time flow monitoring system; complete development and operation of water resource management information system; and complete preparation of Pothohar Climate-smart Irrigated Agriculture Improvement Project.
The documents state that the barrages are equipped with the modern SCADA system for operation of barrage gates, discharge monitoring, automated data collection and transmission, central instrumentation observation system for piezometers to measure subsurface flows and CCTV-based surveillance systems. SCADA is particularly important for Jinnah Barrage because of hydropower plant of about 96 MW capacity on the right bank of the river.
“This hydropower plant passes a substantial discharge of around 100,000 cusecs and a sudden shutdown of hydropower plant could have a detrimental impact on the barrage and its operation 7 if not handled properly”, documents added.
Citing Component B, the documents mention that improvement and Modernization of Irrigation and Water Management System would help in reviewing and updating of water resources management information systems (WRMIS) and Integration with decision support system (DSS) and a GIS-based crop identification system has been developed. Substantial progress is made in completing the Hydrological Modelling and the Real-Time Operational Modelling and the groundwater seasonal fluctuation maps are being developed.
The PID has deployed eight (8) sets of Bathymetric Equipment through specialised bathymetric teams for which additional training would be required. The PID has also initiated the pilot project for revival of degraded river channels in Punjab. The site for the first pilot of inflatable rubber weir is selected at Bahawalpur which would provide over 10,000 acres feet of storage, cover about 2,000 acres of the dry river bed and a supply of about 70 cusecs.
Overall the project implementation targets remain on track with some activities completed ahead of schedule.
