The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday has approved a $100 million loan to address the water scarcity issue in Balochistan.
With the help of this loan the Balochistan Water Resources Development Sector Project will focus on improving irrigation infrastructure and water resource management in the Zhob and Mula river basins, the ADB statement said.
Being an agriculture state, the backbone of the economy depends on the agriculture in Pakistan, ADB Principal Water Resources Specialist Yaozhou Zhou said.
“This project will build irrigation channels and dams and introduce efficient water usage systems and practices to help farmers increase food production and make more money,” he further added.
Among the infrastructure that will be upgraded or built for the project is a dam able to hold 36 million cubic meters of water, 276 kilometres of irrigation channels and drainage canals, and facilities that will make it easier for people, especially women, to access water for domestic use, total 16,592 hectares (ha) of land will be added or improved for irrigation, the statement read.
The project will also establish a water resources information system that will use high-level technology, such as satellite and remote sensing to do river basin modelling and identify degraded land for rehabilitation.
ADB will also administer grants from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) and the High-Level Technology Fund (HLT Fund) worth $3 million and $2 million, respectively, for the project.