FATA project: ADB to loan $42.9m for improving farm income

Agreement signed, 1.4m people will benefit from irrigation schemes

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday signed a $42.9 million loan agreement aimed at upgrading water management and irrigation systems in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to improve farm income in the conflict-stricken regions.

The project is planned to be completed in the next five years and provide benefits to 116,751 households, or approximately 1.4 million people, in the three agencies of Fata, announced the ADB’s country office.

Through small irrigation schemes, the government is targeting to improve water supply to 9,700 hectares of land. The project area consists of three Fata agencies – Bajaur, Mohmand and Khyber – and it will be completed by March 2020.

The ADB board of directors approved the project in December last year. The lender, based in Manila, will provide a $42.9 million concessionary loan while the government of Pakistan will arrange $4.9 million from its own resources. The Fata Secretariat will execute the scheme.

Economic Affairs Division Secretary Saleem Sethi and ADB Country Director for Pakistan Werner Liepach signed the agreement.



Liepach said the Fata Water Resource Development Project would help reduce poverty and household vulnerability through the development of irrigation systems and provision of irrigation water to farming families in Fata.

The project would allow reliable supply of water to farmers, enabling them to produce high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables, thus improving income levels as well as food security for their families, he added.

The livelihood of a majority of 2.6 million inhabitants of Fata’s Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand agencies depends on subsistence farming, raising cattle and harnessing natural resources.

Many farmers in the project area live on rain-fed subsistence farming to grow staples such as wheat in summer and maize in winter, whereas others bank mainly on groundwater taken from wells for irrigation, with little utilisation of surface water.

Under the project, lined watercourses will be constructed, terracing and land levelling will be done. It will also strengthen Fata’s water resource base and water-use efficiency by improving select watersheds, promoting conservation measures to enhance recharging of underground aquifers, and reducing the impact of floods.

Nine small dams with the height of 15 metres would be constructed, directly benefiting thousands of households in Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand agencies, said Saleem Sethi.

For irrigation purposes, 31 diversion weirs and 95 kilometres of main and secondary irrigation channels for a reliable and uninterrupted water supply throughout the year will also be constructed.

The project also includes the installation of rain and stream gauges to measure water availability and building of watersheds on 5,000 hectares.

Sethi acknowledged the ADB’s financial contribution to building infrastructure and irrigation sectors through enlarging its overall portfolio from $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion.

The project would eventually ensure food security, economic prosperity and contribute to elimination of terrorism, he said.

The water resource development project will address low farm productivity, high incidence of poverty and pervasive food insecurity in Fata by increasing agriculture production and household incomes through reliable supply of irrigation water.

Fata is one of the most underdeveloped regions of Pakistan and its inhabitants are among the poorest. The population is poorly educated, lacks access to adequate health care and is deprived of basic services such as potable water and sanitation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.

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