Our Correspondent
Islamabad
The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT)’s Agriculture department has approved the construction of around 45 water channels to boost irrigation activities in various parts of the federal capital.
The approval was recently given at a meeting of the District Implementation Committee (DIC) of the national program to improve water courses and the Barani areas, director agriculture, ICT Waqar Anwar told media. Regarding the timing, he said that the project would be completed during the current financial year at an amount of 60 million that has already been released.
The feasibility study of the sites was done by the ICT Agriculture Directorate , based on the criteria given in the PC-1 of the project, he said adding that ‘the sites were selected taking into account the principle of best utilization and value of money. ” The watercourses, Anwar said, were part of the umbrella project set up by the Ministry of National Food Safety under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to transform the country’s agricultural sector into modern regions and be implemented at federal and provincial level. According to him, the ICT administration has taken several initiatives to benefit the local farmers for watering their crops, in addition to mitigating the water shortages in the capital.
Anwar said the DIC also decided to advertise interventions such as farm dams, dug wells, solar pump systems, plant trees with fruit trees, lasers and the supply of fodder seed to farmers under the project entitled “Improving the area in Barani areas” due to the lukewarm response from farmers in COVID-19 restrictions. He noted that Rs 42 million had been allocated for the project in the current financial year, under which farmers would supply water through dug wells, dams and solar pumps.
