ISLAMABAD: 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).
The prime minister made the decisions while presiding over a meeting on water conservation at Prime Minister’s Office.
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 Programme for improvement of Watercourses in Pakistan Phase-II”, would be undertaken across the country with a target of the lining of over 73,000 watercourses and laser levelling of 12,110 units.
It was decided that the government will subsidise laser-levellers for all the provinces, with an emphasis on Sindh.
The PM was informed that an unutilised command area of around 6,30,000 under small dams and mini dams can be developed by scaling up pilot intervention made earlier by PARC and Agency for Barani Area Development Punjab.
The prime minister was informed that rainwater conservation in KP requires small investments in infrastructure and can be implemented through the local governments.
These infrastructures, it was said, include construction of check dams, water retaining facilities, water storage reservoirs, spurs, water ponds and terracing etc to harness rainwater for its use in irrigation and other purposes.