Christ Yoder
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ISLAMABAD: The World Bank will provide the Sindh government with a loan of $ 200 million for the construction of small rainwater-fed recharge dams to address the risks of drought and flash floods in some areas with a view to build capacity for natural disaster management.
Within the framework of the “Sindh Resilience” project, the selection of sites for small dams will be based on the feasibility study which is currently underway. These dams will be located in the districts of Dadu, Thatta, Karachi, Jamshoro and Tharparkar.
The areas where the dams will be built are poor water regions. Some dams are planned close to each other. Under the project, emergency and rescue services will be operational at the division’s headquarters in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Larkana.
The Indus River is the main source of surface water in the province. It has three major dams in Sindh that annually divert about 48 million acre of feet (MAF) (or 59.0 billion cubic meters-BCM) of water to the 14 main canal drives in Sindh. Over 80 percent of Sindh’s irrigated land is based on brackish water unsuitable for agriculture.
The scarcity of irrigation water associated with drought conditions in Sindh has increased the importance of groundwater exploitation wherever fresh water is available. Fresh groundwater is mainly found in a strip parallel to the left bank of the Indus and a few pockets in other areas.
Sindh is expected to be the most vulnerable “hot spot” in the country in terms of the impact of changes in temperature and precipitation on living standards, with Pakistan’s four most vulnerable districts all located in Sindh – Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas , Sukkur and Larkana.
The province faces one of the most formidable climate challenges in the world.
Posted in Dawn, September 21, 2020
