ISLAMABAD - More than 50 senior Pakistani government officials, university leaders, and civil society experts met Tuesday for the opening of a three-day workshop with two US government scientists on watershed planning in the Gomal Zam Dam area.
This workshop supports Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to conserve and manage watersheds and water usage benefiting small shareholder farmers, said a US embassy statement.
Jon Fripp, a civil engineer, and Mike Kucera, an agronomist, both from the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, facilitated the first day’s activities.
Over the next two days, provincial planners, farmers and engineers will use USDA planning tools to develop a conservation plan for the Gomal Zam Dam area which can then be applied to other watersheds throughout Pakistan.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Casey Bean, Agricultural Counsellor at the US embassy in Islamabad, stated: “This workshop takes a critical next step in allowing Pakistan’s farmers to expand agricultural productivity through the preservation of soil and water by integrated planning.”
Organised by USAID, USDA, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, this workshop is a continuation of USDA’s ongoing engagement in Pakistan.
In addition to its efforts to foster stronger trade relationships between the United States and Pakistan, since 2011 USDA has been actively working in Pakistan to increase productivity in the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, senior Pakistan People’s Party leader Taj Haider yesterday expressed disappointment over the complete omission of the most serious issue of sea intrusion in the International Water Conference organised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
In a statement Taj Haider said that during the hearings on the water issue in Karachi he had personally submitted summaries and conclusions of 6 studies on sea intrusion to the Court and the Court was pleased to assure that the issue was a very serious issue and would be taken up in the International Conference that the Honorable Court was planning.
“It is not sweet water which is going into the sea. It is precious agricultural land of Pakistan that has been devoured by the sea,” Senator Taj Haider said.
He said 2.5 million acres of Thatta and Badin districts had already been lost and the studies point out that if sea intrusion was not effectively checked then the sea would reach the city of Thatta by 2050 completely submerging the Indus Delta.
If 32 MAF of fresh water per year was actually going into the sea, as claimed, we would not be facing the problem of sea intrusion. The fact is that even the 10 MAF release downstream Kotri agreed upon as an interim measure pending detailed studies in the Inter Provincial Water Accord was not being provided.
Haider said construction of a Carry Over dam at Diamir Bhasha would certainly serve to control heavy floods that come every 8 to 10 years.
The stored water could be used in subsequent years in a planned manner to make up for shortages in river flows.
“This would boost our agricultural economy. The major problem is that no agreed operational criteria had been framed for the already existing 2 dams or for the 2 link canals. Mangla and Tarbela are being operated as power plants and not as water reservoirs giving priority to meet the irrigation needs of the Provinces as laid down in the Water Accord,” the PPP leader said.
Water needed for irrigation, he said, was not allowed to flow downstream in order to maximize the generation of electricity.
“It was obvious that in the absence of an agreed operational criteria Basha would be similarly operated. Wasn’t it a fact that the 2 link canals on Mehran at Chashma and Tuansa were also planed as flood canals but were later turned into perennial canals,” he said.
Haider said in these days of highly developed agricultural technology there were so many ways not only to overcome water shortages but to multiply our agricultural yields.
“However, there is only one way to save depleting river deltas and to stop sea intrusion and that is to allow required quantities of fresh water to flow down to the sea,” he maintained.