Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The government has failed to utilise 50 per cent of the budget allocated for water projects in the outgoing fiscal year 2015-16.

Due to the incomplete water projects Pakistan’s agriculture sector is facing many problems as the government did not pay any heed towards these projects so it has failed to achieve the targets in the agricultural field.

The government made the commitment every year in the budget that the focus of investment would be on construction of small and medium dams and disposal of effluents in a safe manner in the upcoming fiscal year 2016-17.

But the most worrying aspect of the year was that 0.19per cent negative growth was recorded by the agriculture sector , whereas the target was fixed as 3.9 per cent.

The cotton output led the freefall in the agriculture sector, though it is considered as the backbone of the national economy. It posted a negative growth of 27pc. The cotton output stood at 10.1 million bales against the target of 13.96m bales. Last year its output stood at 13.9m bales with a 9.5pc growth.

An expert says that the main reason behind the country missing the economic growth target for the current financial year by a wide margin was the widespread dismal performance of the agriculture sector. The gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.7 per cent against the target of 5.5pc.

Farmers are relying on ground water with the help of tube wells due to dearth of storages in the country. Agriculture production is directly linked to the availability and effective consumption of water as a major input.

The government estimates suggest that 10 million acre feet of additional water will be needed at the farm gate by the end of the 11th Five-year Plan (2013-18) in order to meet the needs of a growing population, increase agriculture output and achieve planned targets of the Vision 2025. But if the government is not focused to increase the water resources it is not possible to achieve the targets.

According to research Pakistan is already a water-stressed country, with around 1,038 cubic metres per capita water availability, a drop from 5,000 cubic metres in 1951.

About 20.3 million acres of land remain idle and need to be irrigated, which can only be done if Pakistan has the capacity to regulate the water released, by building more reservoirs.

It may come as a shock that many Pakistanis are using at least 10 times more water than the world’s average, and at no price. In fact, this is happening due to the absence of a price, and hence that of market. When you provide water for free, there is no incentive for conservation.

In the Annual Plan 2016-17, an amount of Rs30.12 billion was allocated for the water sector’s development programme in 2015-16. “Out of which more than Rs25 billion is expected to be utilised by the end of June 2016. Thirteen billion rupees have been allocated for 27 new water projects. These projects are in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The total proposed budget amounts to Rs31.06 billion for 2016-17. Maximum resources have been earmarked for the ongoing development projects that are nearing completion. Construction of small and medium dams, drainage schemes, construction of new canals and improvement of the existing irrigation system has also been earmarked.

The Ministry of Climate Change adopts a National Drinking Water Policy which was accorded approval on 28th September 2009, making Pakistan one of the few countries of the world having a national level policy on the issue of clean drinking water.

The main purpose of the water policy is to provide adequate quantity of safe drinking water to the entire population at an affordable cost and in an equitable, efficient and sustainable manner. For this purpose the government plans to instal a clean water system in the whole country.

But after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, provinces were responsible for conservation projects such as on-farm water management and the high-efficiency irrigation system as well as the provision of clean water to their provinces. But the provinces totly failed to implement the clean water policy.