In the case of Left Bank Outfall Drainage Project (LBOD)(Pakistan), the failure of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority to consider concerns raised by local indigenous communities on wrong discharge design of the project resulted in damages of irrigation, groundwater quality and ecosystem. In the case of Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project (CRBIP) (Pakistan), the consultations were carried out just to fulfil project obligations and did not really mean to take note of what the people had to suggest. Displacement due to flood could have been prevented had there been meaningful peoples’ participation in the project (CRBIP) taking into account local knowledge and expertise. REFERENCE: RUNNING DRY Does the ADB Stand for “Water for All”? Synthesis Report of the Civil Society Organizations to the Implementation Review of the Asian Development Bank Water Policy 18th November 2005 Quezon City, Philippines NGO Forum http://www.forum-adb.org/docs/Running-Dry-ExecutiveSummary.pdf
The rains in southern Pakistan have inflicted unprecedented miseries upon millions of people. Already over 200 people have died, over six million rendered homeless, crops over two million acres destroyed and billions more worth of homes, livestock and infrastructure damaged in several districts of lower Sindh alone. The tragedy is still unfolding and these numbers are going to get worse. Soon water borne diseases will take their own toll as water levels recede. Millions of affectees in these districts – already among the poorest of Pakistanis – would be desperately struggling with new problems of rising poverty and loss of livelihood. So far, no one other than the government agencies has been seen in the field. Our Philanthropic private sector, aid agencies and NGOs absent are visibly absent? There is no doubt that the country has been battered with exceptionally heavy rains again this year. But by all indications, nature’s fury has been compounded by man-made disasters inflicted upon cities as well as the countryside in the shape of faulty designs, shoddy construction and poor monitoring of ‘development’ projects, choked and reverse-flowing municipal drains, broken roads and bridges to the severely flawed project of Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) which has been blocking outflows of flood drainage and allowing inflows of sea water into settled areas during high tides in the Arabian Sea. So much money has been consumed by these ‘development’ projects but when tested, they have only compounded the people’s miseries. The LBOD cost Pakistan over a billion dollars in loan money and was sponsored by a consortium led by the World Bank and assisted by the Asian Development Bank and by some friendly bilateral donor countries to address water logging and salinity problems. Complaints by local communities and official agencies, which had topographical and historical knowledge of water flows, went unheard from the very beginning in 1980s, as the project was designed, executed and monitored between the World Bank and Wapda. The damage inflicted on local communities by the flawed design of this project showed itself during the cyclone of 1999 and floods of 2003. The current havoc caused by the rains has once again reminded us of the recurring problems caused by the malfunctioning LBOD. A World Bank appointed inspection panel had confirmed the validity of the people’s complaints but the rectifications for these admittedly serious flaws have still not been made by the bank management as far as compensation for loss of life, property and livelihood of these communities is concerned. The staff of financial institutions, like the World Bank and Asian Bank, that is directly involved from the project designing to selection of consultants to monitoring, has clear fiduciary duties to ensure that loan funds are used for the benefit of the country and the targeted communities. REFERENCE: An albatross named LBOD Syed Mohibullah Shah Tuesday, September 20, 2011 The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women Bank. Email: smshah@alum.mit.edu http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=68476&Cat=9 Front Line [Flood Special] with Kamran Shahid - 14th Sep 2011 Part 1
URL: http://youtu.be/vYw7z4bH7p0
In some cases the World Bank has debarred companies and consultants responsible for the flaws and promised aid to the affected communities. One would expect that the World Bank group president, Robert Bruce Zoellick, would ask the bank management to extend similar support to the long suffering affectees of the LBOD project also. The law of fiduciary duties is very clear and puts legal and enforceable obligations upon all such entities – local and foreign – that are entrusted with the agency’s responsibilities towards the owners – stockholders in private companies and citizens where public money is used. In Pakistan, repeated scandals rocking the stock market and disasters in the public sector are largely caused by our neglect of understanding and application of the law of fiduciary duties upon those responsible. The results of non enforcement of frequent violations of the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty have given license to various malpractices and made Pakistan into a country where so much money has been spent over the years – foreign and domestic – with so little to show for it in real benefits to people. While some know-all foreign consultants are rightly criticised for their hubris and insensitivity to knowledge and experience regarding local problems while designing costly projects, equally culpable are local authorities which fail in doing their duty diligently in properly scrutinising and evaluating these ‘big ticket’ projects, but are nevertheless in indecent haste to stamp their approvals of poorly designed and half-baked projects. Joseph Stiglitz, who was the chief economist of the World Bank and later received the Nobel Prize for Economics had intimate first hand knowledge of how such things really happen. Talking of why foreign aid in many cases does not produce the desired results and on the contrary creates resentment, he observed before a Congressional hearing; “It’s important that the beneficiaries of the aid are not just western consulting firms looking for fat contracts, but also the people and the communities that we want to help.” REFERENCE: An albatross named LBOD Syed Mohibullah Shah Tuesday, September 20, 2011 The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women Bank. Email: smshah@alum.mit.edu http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=68476&Cat=9
Front Line [Flood Special] with Kamran Shahid - 14th Sep 2011 Part 2
URL: http://youtu.be/CibCslfQ-Mk
He went on to add, “Recipient officials (of developing countries) who welcomed the consultants at first, but after hundreds of fact-finding meetings with an endless array of consultants from donor organisations and the international financial institutions, many officials were disillusioned and frustrated.” This story is still being repeated in Pakistan as some important projects are getting underway under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid package. While the LBOD problems have concrete visibility in terms of concentrated damage to human life, crops and properties, there are several other ‘big ticket’ projects whose damage, though dispersed and less visible in concrete terms, has been no less to the goals of national development. Often these are shoved under the carpet to cover our own inadequacies and failures to fulfil fiduciary duties as far as foreign entities are concerned. While there are several other similar stories, I will relate one regarding a ‘big ticket’ project launched by the Social Action Programme (SAP) during the 1990s with World Bank’s and the Pakistan government’s funds. This was one of those projects where even the donor community disputed our unrealistic claims and questioned the skewed incentives, unsustainability and ad hoc deviations of multimillion dollars by SAP from its original intent and objectives. A real life glimpse into the workings in Pakistan may suffice to elaborate this. The day this project was approved by the government of Pakistan, this writer was informed the same evening by some very surprised staff members of the Islamabad office of the World Bank of how things happened on that fateful day. The bank staff and their consultants had spent several days preparing for all kinds of likely questions and critiques from the Pakistani side in what was expected to be at least a day-long marathon session, as the project details would come up for approval. They could not believe their eyes and ears when the meeting, in which the approvals for this project were given and multimillion dollar loan liabilities accepted by Pakistani, did not even last thirty minutes! It is no wonder, therefore, to face the bitter fact that while Pakistan has been one of the largest recipients of foreign aid and its debt mountain has become unsustainable, there is so little to show on ground for so much money spent over the years. Some knowledgeable foreign observers have dubbed the story of ‘development’ in Pakistan as both ‘hilarious and heartbreaking’. Heartbreaking indeed! REFERENCE: An albatross named LBOD Syed Mohibullah Shah Tuesday, September 20, 2011 The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women Bank. Email: smshah@alum.mit.edu http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=68476&Cat=9
Front Line [Flood Special] with Kamran Shahid - 14th Sep 2011 Part 3
URL: http://youtu.be/1_6QddnKdK4
The recent floods caused by heavy monsoon rains have inflicted a loss of Rs 216.6 billion on the country while crops on an estimated 2.1 million acres of land have been damaged including 74 percent of cotton crop, 26 percent rice and 34 percent sugarcane. According to the documents available with Business Recorder, 74 percent loss to the cotton crop means Rs 121 billion in monetary term; loss to rice crop is Rs 15 billion and Rs 20 billion to sugarcane. Whereas loss to chillies is estimated at Rs 41 billion, tomatoes Rs 1.1 billion, onion Rs 11 billion and Rs 976 million loss to musk melon. The government has to bear Rs 2.7 billion loss in terms of Kharif vegetables and Rs 2.4 billion due to damages to banana orchards. "If the crop area remains under the flood water for the next 2-3 days, the land would not remain cultivable for the next year due to salinity and water-logging," sources said. It may be mentioned here that the 2010 floods had caused a total loss of Rs 2 million to cotton bales. The floods damaged standing sugarcane crop on 0.2 million hectares. About 0.7 million tons wheat stock was damaged. Paddy's damage was 1.5 million tons, mostly of Irri-6 in Sindh. Sources said: "The loss to farm output during 2010 floods was less than that of current year's. Last year, the crops in just 8 districts of Sindh were affected while in 2011, the Kharif crops in 21 to 22 districts of lower Sindh have been damaged." Rains have hit 21 districts of Sindh, but nine of them have been badly affected including Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Umerkot, Sanghar and Benazirabad. The Sindh province contributes significantly towards overall national agriculture production in major crops: 32 percent in rice, 24 percent in cotton, 12 percent in sugarcane, 21 percent in wheat. Sources said that the total crop area damaged in Mirpurkhas is estimated at 1.2 lakh acres, in Tharparkur 3,946 acres, in Umerkot 67,749 acres, in T A Yar 65,320 acres, in T M Khan 70,111 acres, in Badin 3.1 lakh acres, in Thatta 1.3 lakh acres and in Sanghar 3.3 lakh acres. In Hyderabad district, the total crop area damaged is estimated at 21,719 acres, in Matiari, 68,031 acres, Shaheed Benazirabad 1.5 lakh acres, N S Feroze 67,536 acres, Khairpur 1.7 lakh acres, Sukkur 25,404 acres, and in Ghotki 68,424 acres. REFERENCE: Pakistan. Floods cause Rs 216.6 billion loss http://www.blackseagrain.net/photo/pakistan.-floods-cause-rs-216.6-billion-loss
Front Line [Flood Special] with Kamran Shahid - 14th Sep 2011 Part 4
URL: http://youtu.be/87-E-KsaF0U
HYDERABAD: Sanghar remains underwater with no immediate signs of a drop in the water level. The government’s efforts to drain the district, meanwhile, are being met with suspicion by the business community. Eid, on August 30, brought with it a second spell of monsoon rains that left the cotton-rich district under several feet of water. The authorities are now faced with the knotty situation of draining out that water. Their solution – an improvised drain dug along the city’s trade centre on MA Jinnah Road. The drain — about 500 metres long, six foot deep and four foot wide — is meant to draw water from the district and direct it towards a natural route to the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), explained the town municipal administrator, Maluk Khaskheli. “It will pump (water) off towards the Sanghar-Khairpur square. From that point, the water will flow over the agricultural fields towards the LBOD.” Khaskheli explains that a pump, 12 inches in diameter has been installed to suck out water from MA Jinnah Road while other areas still await their pumps. Issues arise, however, when you take into account the fact that MA Jinnah Road has a number of shops located all along it. Liaquat Market, Saeed Market, Shahi Bazaar, Nawabshah Road, Thana Road are markets that sell everything from agricultural inputs and goods to grocery, jewellery, cosmetics and medical stores. REFERENCE: Sanghar desperately tries to drain MA Jinnah Road - only to have more water flow in By Z Ali Published: October 3, 2011 http://tribune.com.pk/story/265441/sanghar-desperately-tries-to-drain-ma-jinnah-road-only-to-have-more-water-flow-in/
Super Flood in Sanghar By ApnaSanghar.com
URL: http://youtu.be/K3KMeIOnh7U
Sanghar Civil Hospital By ApnaSanghar.com
URL: http://youtu.be/gO2sFK6geEM
Mirpurkhas Complete report after stopping rain in Sindh
URL: http://youtu.be/7KNnOkk4F0Y
The business community considers the plan ineffective. “They dug the ditch on Saturday and, by that evening, the process of sucking water out began. Yet, almost two days into it, we still find our legs in as much water as they were then,” bemoans Malik Sher Muhammad, senior vice president of the Sanghar Chamber of Commerce. He highlighted a number of reasons for the plan’s failure. “While they try to drain out water from MA Jinnah Road, the water from the surrounding areas pours in onto the road. Besides, the LBOD is flowing to its full capacity and may not even take more water.” For Muhammad, any efforts towards drainage should include pumping water from all connected areas simultaneously. “Our delegation called on the DCO a day ago and we asked him to throw water into the Bhan Distributary which is empty. But our advice has not been followed,” he said, taking a jab at the lack of official coordination between the district administration and business community. The chamber’s Haji Yameen Qureshi, who trades crops and runs a shop on the road, accuses the municipal administration of procrastination. “It has been over two weeks since it last rained. The work which should have taken place then still lacks a sense of direction.” Qureshi, like Muhammad, also objects to the diversion of water towards the LBOD but suggests that it should be towards Ghaat Parah, which, according to him, is a natural drain. “They need to understand the city’s geography first before making a move.” Two years ago, the former Sanghar nazim laid a new sewerage system in the area. However, the lines have become choked with sludge. Apart from traders, the agriculturalists, whose crops lie ruined under several feet of water, wonder when they will be able to plough their lands again. “The coming days (look bleak for the growers) if urban areas on higher grounds find it difficult to create an outlet for water,” remarked Hassan Askari, the Sindh Small Growers Association general secretary. Sanghar, the country’s top cotton producer, expected to harvest four million bales this year from over 360,000 acres sown. But floods in the irrigation channels have drowned that prospect along with the city itself. Askari said that he heard an irrigation official say that the quantity of floodwater in Sanghar is equal to the water table in the Mangla Dam. “Until the districts above Sanghar are emptied of water, and drains in Badin carry that water to the sea, Sanghar will remain underwater.” Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2011. REFERENCE: Sanghar desperately tries to drain MA Jinnah Road - only to have more water flow in By Z Ali Published: October 3, 2011 http://tribune.com.pk/story/265441/sanghar-desperately-tries-to-drain-ma-jinnah-road-only-to-have-more-water-flow-in/
2609 - News Night with Talat - Ep 232 - Part 02.MOV
URL: http://youtu.be/-rkOM35A5Uc
KARACHI, Sept 9: Unprecedented torrential monsoon rains lashing Sindh and causing flash flooding in 16 districts of the province have a direct linkage with global climate change, says a climate expert.Responding to Dawn queries, Federal Advisor on Climate Affairs Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry said that the volume of total water fallen over Sindh during the four weeks period is estimated to be over 37 million acres feet.The pattern of extreme weather events in Pakistan in the recent past has shown a clear indication of increased frequency and intensity of such events in Pakistan, in line with international climate change projections, he stated. Dr Qamar, who is associated with the formulation of the country’s first draft National Climate Change Policy, explained that rains in Sindh during the four-week period are the highest-ever recorded monsoon rains. Before the start of these rains in the second week of August 2011, Sindh was under severe drought conditions and did not receive any rainfall in the previous 12 months, he explained. A previous severe rainfall, which led to flooding in the province, had occurred in July 2003. But this time devastative rains of over 1,150mm in Mithi; Mirpurkhas (676mm); Diplo (779mm); Chhachhro (735mm); Nagar Parkar (792mm); Nawabshah (547mm); Badin (512mm); Chhor (456mm); Padidan (318mm); Hyderabad (249mm), etc., have created unparallel flooding in Sindh.The area might not have seen rains of such a magnitude in recent years.The rainfall, he said, was predicted well in advance by the meteorological offices, and the disaster management agencies were also well-prepared, but owing to the scale of this natural calamity (combined with the topography of the area having very poor natural drainage), most water stagnated and breaches in Left-Bank Outfall Drain and irrigation channels further complicated the scale of flooding. He said that weathermen had been warning that climate change would cause a considerable increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, coupled with erratic monsoon rains, causing floods and droughts. Moreover, a further increase in temperature may result in enhanced heat and water stress conditions, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Dr Qamar said it is very difficult to link any single weather event to a climate change, if we look at the frequency and trend of extreme weather events impacting Pakistan, it would be easy to find its linkage with climate change. He said that the pattern of extreme weather events in Pakistan in the recent past is showing a clear indication of increased frequency and intensity of such events in Pakistan which are in line with international climate change projections. The climate change has become a reality for Pakistan, he stressed. The climate expert said clearly Pakistan is heading for an increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events which included frequent floods and droughts, and the need of the hour is to plan for the future changes. He said that the government had already taken first step in that direction as draft national climate change policy was being formulated. Expert links Sindh rains with climate change By Our Staff Reporter | From the Newspaper September 10, 2011 (4 weeks ago) http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/10/expert-links-sindh-rains-with-climate-change.html
URL: http://youtu.be/DZciMfjyiLw
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Like last year, nature has come to the rescue of Manchhar Lake this year as heavy monsoon rains over Sindh have washed away contamination and restored for the time being the major source of fresh water supply to the lake. “The calamity of rains has saved Manchhar Lake once again,” Additional Attorney General K.K. Agha told a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani. The bench had taken up complaints regarding rising pollution due to disposal of effluent from MNV (Main Nara Valley) drain now converted into RBOD-I (Right Bank Outfall Drain) that deprived thousands of fishermen of their source of livelihood. Environmentalists believe that rising pollution is leading Manchhar Lake, one of Asia`s largest freshwater lakes, towards a painful death. Some reports suggest the oldest inhabitants of Sindh called Mohanas usually live on boats and rely on fishing, bird hunting, net making, boat making and farming but the alarming level of toxic particles in the lake has forced them to abandon their profession. Sindh Chief Secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas suggested in a comprehensive report that catchments areas of the lake, like Lukhy Range and Kaccho area spread over Sindh and Balochistan, experienced adequate rainfall during the current monsoon season. It has restored the major source of fresh water supply to the lake and filled it up to 116.5 feet with fresh rainwater, its maximum level being 117 feet. “The nature has resolved the issue of contamination of water of the lake for a considerable span of time probably for at least a year,” the report claimed.The attorney general assured the court that he would request the federal government to release the first tranche of Rs1.3 billion out of the Rs5 billion allocated for completion and commissioning of RBOD-II. Since RBOD-I is also in the close proximity of Haleji Lake, it poses a direct threat to the wetland, once called a birdwatchers` paradise. The lake is already under severe stress because of inadequate water. Earlier, the federal government had accepted Sindh government`s request for Rs5 billion to develop RBOD-II and had suggested re-appropriation from other ongoing projects. In response, the Sindh government referred the matter back to it for reconsideration stating that re-appropriation would mean putting constraints on other projects which were equally important. Alternatively it put a request of release of Rs1.3 billion as first quarter. Engineering experts believe that the extension of RBOD-II to the sea from Sehwan is the only viable solution for the disposal of effluent from RBOD-I. The project was conceived in late 1990s at a cost of Rs29 billion. Sixty per cent of the work has been completed but subsequent work was suspended when fund releases were curtailed to Rs1.5 billion.Referring to the treatment of RBOD effluent, the Sindh chief secretary`s report said that Wapda had proposed installation of five treatment plants on the MNVD before it enters Manchhar Lake. As a first step a pilot treatment plant has been launched for which a feasibility report costing Rs3.3 billion has been cleared by the Central Development Working Party of the Planning Commission and now awaits approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. In addition, 12 desalination plants will be installed in the Manchhar Lake/RBOD area. Six of them will be installed and maintained by Wapda from its own resources and the rest by the Sindh government. Three desalination plants have been installed and are under operation and about 3,000 gallons of potable water is being distributed among fishermen, though the supply was disturbed because of a fault in the system during the current rainy season. Rains a boon for Manchhar Lake, apex court told By Nasir Iqbal | From the Newspaper September 20, 2011 (2 weeks ago) http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/20/rains-a-boon-for-manchhar-lake-apex-court-told.html
2609 - News Night with Talat - Ep 232 - Part 04.MOV
URL: http://youtu.be/12eZYRPyAyA
The recent monsoon rains (August to September 2011) have brought great disasters in various districts of Sindh. Record torrential rains in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Thatta, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan and other districts and towns of Sindh have wreaked havoc leaving more than 200 people including women and children dead and more than 400 people injured, according to reports in media and consolidated figures reported by provincial authorities. First rain spell, started on August 8, 2011, hit hard Mirpurkhas, Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan and parts of Tharparkar like Mithi, Jati in Thatta, Kunri and other areas in Umerkot and Tando Allahyar districts. Second rain spell started on August 30, 2011, which hit hard Khairpur, Naushehro Feroz, Nawabshah, Dadu, Jamshoro, Sanghar, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot districts.The Federal Advisor on Climate Affairs Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry said that the volume of total water fallen over Sindh during the four weeks period is estimated to be over 37 million acres feet, whereas this devastative rains over 1,150mm in Mithi; Mirpurkhas (676mm); Diplo (779mm); Chhachhro (735mm); Nagar Parkar (792mm); Nawabshah (547mm); Badin (512mm); Chhor (456mm); Padidan (318mm); Hyderabad (249mm), etc., have created unparallel flooding in Sindh.As for Sanghar district, according to Met officials, the 405 mm rainfall was recorded in Shahdadpur followed by 402 mm in Sanghar, 297mm in Sinjhoro and 139 mm in Tando Adam (the talukas of Sanghar District). The government figures showed the 80 percent loss to standing crops, like cotton, paddy, sugarcane, chili and vegetables. It is feared that the displaced people may face food shortage, as they have almost lost the sources of livelihoods and food. Sanghar District was completely submerged in rain and flood water. An estimated 200,000 people have been displaced, some 3500 households were moved from their damaged/inundated houses/villages to nearby roadsides. Some of the families have either migrated to Thar or shifted to the desert areas near Chotyari Reservoir. The affected areas have become mosquito prone which has resulted in spreading malaria cases at alarming level. Besides, very frequent cases of gastro and diarrhea are also being reported. The local hospitals are full of such patients, majority of them are children. Sanghar district administration also called the armed forces to rescue thousands of stranded families in different villages.Sanghar’s connection with Karachi Hyderabad, Hala, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and Khipro has been cut off. District Sanghar is basically agro-based producing cotton, wheat and sugarcane. The recent rains have damaged almost 80-90% of the standing crop especially cotton crop as it was mature and was at picking stage. The banana, mango and sugarcane fields are also under deep water. Vegetables i.e. onion, tomato and chilies have been damaged by 80% and their prices have more than doubled. During surveying the affected areas of Sanghar District Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister, Sindh, told the reporters, “We have some six million affected people in the province, and it will take time for their rehabilitation.” He declared the Sanghar district calamity hit area and announced Rs 20 million as financial assistance for the rain victims of the district. Taluka Nazim Shahdadpur Faqir Hussain Bux Khaskheli, while addressing a press conference about rain-related damages at TMA Office on September 13, said that out of 13 UCs of taluka 5 were destroyed while remaining UCs also suffered major losses. “Hundred of houses have collapsed while standing crops of worth billions of rupees are inundated,” he added. He was of view Shahdadpur, which was considered as cotton strip, had now become a rain belt. At least 2000 villages have been flooded due to monsoon showers and resultant breaches in canals and saline nullahs, displacing more than 0.2 million people in Shahdadpur sub-division. Hundreds of displaced families have taken refuge in buildings of schools and other govt. buildings while those not so lucky were waiting under open sky for some rescue and relief assistance. The farmers of Sindh who have suffered a colossal loss to their crops in flash floods – estimated to be over 1.6 million acres – have given the government time until October 10 to repair the shattered irrigation system for their Rabi (winter) sowing.The growers fear that after their Kharif (summer) crops were destroyed in the rain, they will also be unable to sow their Rabi crops which would lead to a great deficit in food.“The government should help the affected farmers to cultivate four million acres of wheat crop, 1 million acres of sunflower and different varieties of pulses on 300,000 acres,” they demanded in a meeting of Sindh Abadgar Board. They came forward with detailed recommendations to rebuild irrigation and a list of demands.They asked that the whole province be declared calamity hit, loans be waived off, generous assistance be offered to the affected people, complete government support for the Rabi sowing and the distribution of fertilizers and seeds free or at subsidized prices.Now the soils of Pakistan especially those areas which have received heavy rain and having poor or no drainage system have become victim of water-logging and salinity. Pakistan has already an area of 6.8 million hectares salt affected which directly affects living standard of people. Annual economic loss due to salinity and water-logging problems has been estimated at more than Rs. 20 billion. In this context, Government of Pakistan has spent billions of rupees on hydro-engineering approach (Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects, and National Drainage Programme for combating salinity and water-logging but the results were not encouraging and sustainable primarily because of want of recurrent maintenance and huge O&M costs.Pakistani scientists have done pioneering research to develop alternative approaches to live with salinity for economically utilizing salt-affected lands which led to the development of the concept of Bio-Saline Agriculture. Their research aims at better use of salt affected lands and brackish irrigation water on a sustained basis through integrated use of genetic resources (plants, animals, fish and insects) and improved agricultural practices.Bio-Saline Agriculture Technology’ is an interim, alternative cost-effective solution to salt affected soils and may be profitably applied for economic utilization of our saline environments, till an engineering solution of the problem becomes achievable. However, the benefits of this successful research have not been transferred to the farmers. There is an immense need for its adoption on a national scale by the farmers of the affected lands. Adaptive research has never gained legitimacy because of a top down approach. Its affects on ground in terms of adoption have always been marginal and that too with the big farmers have always remained outside its purview. This requires investments in adaptive research, extension, social mobilization and capacity building and to tackle the problem in a holistic manner in which poverty reduction becomes the centrepiece.Under the current situation of flood and devastative rains, the adaptation of Bio-saline Agriculture Programme becomes more important and is only the economic, cost effective and safe solution which can address the farmer’s affected land. Government of Pakistan should start it with organizing the farmers in the target area and working holistically will try to demonstrate that how to utilize saline lands and generate economic returns and reduce poverty by providing alternate options in Bio-saline agriculture technology. This programme will also try to address the immediate and acute needs of the farmers that can help mitigate salinity/water logging and reduce their poverty through demonstration of benefits of bio-saline technologies. REFERENCE: Solution of flood affected lands Posted on September 20, 2011 Mohammad Ali Khaskheli http://www.thefrontierpost.com/?p=57858
URL: http://youtu.be/so7S19XUJU8
The World Bank in Pakistan: See no suffering, hear no cries, speak no truth Mustafa Talpur with A. Ercelan and M. Nauman Pakistan Institute of Labor Education & Research (PILER) http://www.realityofaid.org/userfiles/roareports/roareport_32315c5153.pdf
