Projects

Project Information

Punjab Farmer-Managed Irrigation Project

Country and Location

Pakistan in the provinces of Punjab

Borrower

Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Date of Approval

25 March 1999

Project Description

The Project is part of a national reform program to improve the governance of irrigation systems to ensure sustainability, improve equity of water distribution, and increase agricultural production and rural incomes. Procedures and institutional arrangements for participatory management of distributary canals will be developed in a pilot area in preparation for wider replication, and will ultimately lead to reduced fiscal demand. Improvement of the distributary canals and watercourses will be planned and implemented with full involvement of the concerned communities.

Important aspects incorporated into the Project include (i) institutional development support for the establishment of autonomous farmer-managed organizations, (ii) beneficiary participation and a demand-driven approach, (iii) an integrated management structure, and (iv) environmental improvement.

Total Cost

US$12.7 million equivalent comprising foreign exchange cost of US$1.4 million and local currency cost of US$11.3 million.

Bank Financing

US$7.8 million equivalent from the Bank's Special Funds resources.

Other Sources of Finance

The Government of the Punjab and Project beneficiaries.

Executing/Procurement Agency

Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority.

Procurement

Civil works under the Project will consist of improving and upgrading existing distributary canals, watercourses, and office buildings. In the case of the distributary canal improvements and office conversion, the civil works contracts identified are less than US$0.5 million and will be awarded on the basis of local competitive bidding among prequalified local contractors following Government procedures acceptable to the Bank. For watercourse improvements, the materials will be procured by the water users association (WUAs) directly from local suppliers following standard procedures acceptable to the Bank. The WUAs will undertake all construction activities themselves.

Consultants

A total of 5 person-months of international consultancy and 427 person-months of professional domestic consultancy/nongovernment organization (NGO) services will be required to provide institutional development support, technical support to the FOs, design services, and construction supervision. Four separate packages of consultancy services will be engaged comprising (i) an institutional development team to mobilize, support, and train the emerging FOs, (ii) an interim technical operations unit to manage the canal system during the transition period, (iii) design and supervision consultants to provide engineering input for the remodeling of distributary canals, and (iv) monitoring and evaluation consultants. The consultants/NGOs will be recruited in accordance with the Bank's Guidelines on the Use of Consultants and other arrangements satisfactory to the Bank on the engagement of the domestic consultants and NGOs.

Estimated Date of Completion

31 December 2004