ADB meets safeguard steps in irrigation project

KARACHI: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has complied with most of the safeguard policies for the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project, an independent Compliance Review Panel (CRP) said.

“The Asian Development Bank has addressed a range of challenging issues involved in the ADB-funded irrigation project and compliance requirements have now been met,” the ADB website quoted the panel as saying on Monday.

The panel was appointed by the bank’s board of directors to carry out compliance review under the accountability mechanism. The mechanism aims to provide a forum for people adversely affected by the ADB-financed projects to raise their problems with the bank.

The ADB is the main financier of the $454 million project, contributing $299 million (66 per cent).

In a report submitted to the ADB’s board, the CRP said “considerable progress” has been made by the ADB to comply with all its safeguard policies for the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project, which was approved in December 1991.

The CRP said after five years of monitoring it was observed that the ADB had complied with 24 of the original 29 recommendations and partially complied with four other recommendations. One recommendation, the report said, “had already been superseded by events.”

“The ADB, with cooperation from the Government of Pakistan and executing agencies, has been able to bring the compliance process to a satisfactory conclusion,” said Rusdian Lubis, the CRP chair.

The CRP had identified a number of lessons learnt during the monitoring phase. Among them, it suggested that the ADB must address the implementation of its environmental and social safeguards at the earliest stages of project approval and implementation.

“This was a challenging case, with a very good result. It is also timely, as the lessons from this case can be used during the current review of the accountability mechanism,” Lubis said.

The review will cover the operation of the mechanism and related operating and administrative procedures.

The Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project was launched in 1978 and comprised three stages, including construction of a major irrigation network.

The project is expected to irrigate 230,000 hectares of semi-arid barren land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. By introducing year-round irrigation in the project area, improvements are expected in crop and livestock production as well as in the incomes of some 53,000 farm families - about 370,000 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2010.