Water

Country Water Action: Pakistan
Canal Rehabilitation a Boon for Small Farmers
(October 2005)

The lush greenery along the waterway leading to fields in the outskirts of Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore is somewhat out of place in what used to be a water-scarce area.

The grass is sign of running water in the canal, which used to be clogged by weeds and sediments.

“The water was barely enough to irrigate two of about 40 hectares of land I have,” says Chaudhary Zaheeruddin, a farmer in his late fifties. “We used to have water only during the winter and not during the dry months when need is greatest,” he adds.

Agriculture contributes 22.6 percent of Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product and employs almost 42 percent of the workforce.

However, production had remained low largely caused by shortages of water in the roughly 140,500 canals taking water to the fields.

The water resulting from seepage, spillage and over-tapping of the canals was almost 40 percent in some areas, causing farmers to mine ground water that is not best-suited for agriculture.

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A unique project has now begun to change that by helping farmers to rehabilitate their canals at the lower end of the irrigation system.

Under the Agriculture On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) project, the government supports farmers and water user groups in efforts to reinforce their canals. The program was funded by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1977 to 1980. Afterward, various phases of OFWM were carried out with the help of World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international donor agencies.

In fiscal year 2005-06, which ends in June next year, the plans to spend a little over a billion dollars (66 billion Pakistani rupees) to improve 87,000 user-end canals in different parts of the country.

The plan is to upgrade 28,000 canals in the province of Punjab, 29,000 in Sindh, 10,000 in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), 16,463 in Balochistan and 3,537 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

This translates into lining 15 percent of all canals in fresh groundwater areas and 30 percent of those flowing through saline zones.

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The water-users contribute almost 36 percent of the rehabilitation cost through labor contributions, while the government pays for purchasing construction materials (64 percent).

Zaheeruddin is among those farmers that have already taken the government offer.

He needed about 5,333 dollars (about 320,000 rupees) to line the canal with brick and mortar, which was almost the amount he would otherwise spend to pump ground water.

“Even others who did not upgrade their canals have benefited from water I have saved,” he says. After the rehabilitation, he is now able to water 18 to 25 acres of land.

Inspired by the Zaheeruddin’s gains, now many others have also begun rehabilitating their canals.

The project has been most successful in the province of Punjab, where the government was able to repair 2,000 canals — its target for fiscal year 2004/05. The province now plans to rehabilitate another 5,000 user-canals.

The provinces of NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan have also met their targets to repair 1,000 canals each.

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The director general of the OFWM project in the Punjab province, Mushtaq Ahmed Gill, says improvement of canals at the user end must have had a major contribution to the 7.5 percent growth attained in agriculture in fiscal year 2004/05. The country’s economic survey reports ‘an unprecedented increase in cotton production (14.6 million bales) and a near bumper wheat crop (of the size of 21.1 million tons).

The OFWM also has the approval of independent experts.

“The lining of watercourses is among the most popular programs in the rural areas,” says Muhammad Shafique, a water expert. “The egalitarian scheme benefits everyone, both large and the small farmers.”

The scheme has also helped ‘insulate’ the small farmers from the traditional control of politically well-connected larger farmers on irrigation water.  

“Now there is enough water for everyone because we have saved what used to be lost,” says Ghulam Rasool, a farmer. “If one farmer improves his canal, he also saves water for others.”

The government’s agriculture department estimates that the canal improvement has helped to expand the cropped area by 4.5 percent, raise cropping intensity by 5.8 percent and increase yield by 14.8 percent.

A 2005 evaluation by the agriculture department also showed that the OFWM project had led to a 25 percent reduction in conveyance losses from the canals and a decline in salinity by 4.9 percent.

The canal-lining project is also one that is closely watched by Pakistan’s President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“The project has already contributed substantially to poverty alleviation as it has brought employment to thousands of people in rural areas,” he told a project review meeting in May.