Right Bank Outfall Drain: Centre, Sindh fail to remove financing headache

This comes despite Supreme Court’s push to control water contamination

ISLAMABAD: Despite a strong push from the Supreme Court to stop contamination of Manchar Lake by installing water treatment plants, the federal and Sindh governments on Tuesday could not resolve the issue of financing the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) project.

A meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec), convened before the next court hearing, ended inconclusively after Sindh representatives showed reluctance to finance the drainage project.



However, Ecnec approved the Kachhi Canal project at a revised cost of Rs80.4 billion to irrigate land in Balochistan. The project had been approved at a cost of just Rs31.2 billion in 2002 and it has now become a symbol of corruption and mismanagement.

“Projects related to the Right Bank Outfall Drain were deferred on request of the Government of Sindh to allow them time to firm up views on their contribution to RBOD-II as per financing plan,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance after the Ecnec meeting.

The revised cost of extending the RBOD-II, which will pass through Dadu and Thatta districts of Sindh, is Rs64.7 billion. However, work had been halted due to scarcity of funds as the federal government decided to release its remaining Rs25 billion only when the Sindh government provided its share of Rs14 billion, said officials of the finance ministry.

Representatives of the Sindh government told Ecnec chairman that they had not committed to providing funds in the past. They would now take up the matter with the political leadership and come back again. On Sindh’s request, Ecnec will meet again on Friday - two days before scheduled court hearing of the water contamination case on March 13.

Till June last year, Rs28.3 billion had been spent on RBOD-II, leaving a balance of Rs36.4 billion. For the current financial year 2016-17, the federal government has allocated only Rs2 billion for the scheme. So far, the Ministry of Planning has not yet released a penny, according to the ministry’s documents.

In September last year, then chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that the Sindh government passed the buck on to the federal government and in turn the federal government blamed the provincial government whereas the ultimate victim of the blame game was the public at large.

The court observed that people living downstream on both sides of Indus River were dying because of toxic effluent and waste in Manchar Lake.

Wapda informed the court that a treatment plant for the RBOD had been abandoned due to massive funding issues. It suggested that contamination could be stopped if water was released from Nai-Ganj Dam into the Manchar Lake, which also required funding and minimum time frame of three years for completion of work.



Another project - Balochistan Effluent Disposal Outfall Drain (RBOD-III) - is also under construction. Of its Rs11.5 billion cost, Rs6 billion had been spent till June last year. For this fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs1.3 billion, but did not release anything.

Ecnec approved the Kachhi Canal project at a cost of Rs80.4 billion. The project is aimed at developing water and land resources in less developed areas of Balochistan including the districts of Dera Bugti, Naseerabad, Bolan, Kachhi and Jhal Magsi.

Kachhi Canal off-takes at Taunsa Barrage from Indus River with peak discharge of 6,000 cusecs and will irrigate 713,000 acres. Under phase-I, 72,000 acres will be irrigated.

However, this project was not part of the Ecnec agenda.

Started in October 2002, the project was to be completed by June 2008. Ecnec had approved it at a cost of Rs31.2 billion.

Ecnec also approved the project for detailed design and construction of Pehur high-level canal extension, Swabi at a cost of Rs10.2 billion.

The project is an extension to the command area of Pehur High Level Canal and draws supplies through Gandaf Tunnel directly, which conveys irrigation water from Tarbela Dam reservoir.

The project will bring about 8,727 hectares of rain-fed land under irrigated agriculture. It will enhance irrigated area and ensure food security due to increase in crop production over the next decade in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.



Ecnec also accorded approval to the conversion of existing 220-kilovolt sub-stations at Band Road, Kalashah Kaku, Ravi and Nishatabad (Lahore and Faisalabad districts) to GIS technology at a cost of Rs5.7 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.