KARACHI:A delegation of World Bank officials on Monday called on Sindh Minister for Irrigation Department Jam Khan Shoro at his office in Clifton, Karachi.
The delegation was led by the task team leader for Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation (SWAT) project, Greg Browder, along with Francis Onimues, Josses Moeabi and other officials. The meeting discussed the status of SWAT project, Sindh water policy and the implementation of Sindh Barrages Improvement Projects in detail.
The meeting was attended by the concerned officers of irrigation department Sindh and SIDA, including Managing Director, SIDA Pritam Das, Muhammad Ehsan Laghari and others. The Managing Director SIDA informed that Sindh Irrigation Department had initially prepared a PC-1 of Rs300 million for the resettlement action plan to rehabilitate the areas which are located nearby Akram Wah and in this regard, Sindh government had approved it in the annual development scheme. “Further, Rs200 million has been added for PC1 under SWAT project for the resettlement action plan as well,” he added.
The task team leader of the SWAT Project, Mr Greg Browder, stressed that Sindh government has to finalize the draft of Sindh Water Policy during current year before the month of August because it would be difficult to process the project without finalizing water policy.
On this occasion, Shoro informed that the draft of Sindh Water Policy was under process and very soon would be finalized by taking into confidence the all stakeholders. He said that Sindh Water Policy is an important matter and we were facing lots of different inter-provincial issues and it was connected with the future’s generation of Sindh. He further said, we couldn’t finalize the Sindh Water Policy without the consultations and consensus of stakeholders including organization of farmers and others on it.
Shoro assured his full cooperation and extended support in order to finalize the draft of Sindh Water Policy to the World Bank’s team leader Mr. Greg Browder in order to proceed the Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation (SWAT) project as soon as possible. In the end, officers concerned also briefed the meeting about the status of Sindh Barrage Improvement Projects in details.