A high-level delegation of the World Bank visited the head office of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) here on Monday and held meetings with the authoritys top officers. The spokesman of SIDA HizbullahMangrio informed that during the meeting banks Task Team Leader, Greg Browder underscored the need of joint efforts by the officers of SIDA and the Sindh Agriculture Department to make the Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation (SWAT) project successful.
He said the cooperation was necessary to address the irrigation issues and to give a boost to the agriculture sectors economy. The Chairman of SIDA Qabool Muhammad Khatian said under SWATs Canal Modernization initiative work was underway on Badin districts longest distributary named Imam Wah. According to him, Imam Wah consisted of 170 Reduced Distance (RDs) and it started from Tando Muhammad Khan district and culminated in Badin. The Managing Director of SIDA Preetam Das underlined the need for close working coordination with the agriculture department to ensure the optimal success of SWAT. He apprised that the authority was conducting a training program for the farmers and other stakeholders under the canal modernization program.
The Project Director of SWAT Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur told the meeting that a long-crested weir was being fixed at Jarka Minor in order to address the water unavailability complaints. The Project Coordinator NazeerEssani said water regulation and crop patterns were being monitored through satellites. The World Banks Francois Onimus emphasized the need to collect data of the water flows before embarking on the works under the canal modernization program.
Engineer SajjadSoomro apprised that the capacity of Jarka Minor was 244 cusecs and that it could irrigate around 18,000 acres of agricultural land.
He added that there were 102 water courses in the minor which spread over 67 RDs. SIDAs Ghulam Mustafa Ujjan, Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAOs) Ahmed JunaidMemon and other officials also expressed their views at the meeting.
