'Depleting' water table: Punjab fails to provide any data
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17/03/2008
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Business Recorder
Punjab government has failed to provide any data on depleting water table in the province despite the fact that its media campaign on the issue has disturbed the central government. Sources told Business Recorder that Punjab government had recently launched an advertisement campaign in which it informed the public that water table in the province had dropped to alarming level due to digging of tube-wells. On noticing the media campaign, Islamabad authorities, including the Planning Commission, inquired from Punjab about the exact situation. The media campaign had tried to make the central government authorities believe that the Punjab government had conducted a study on the issue, which had brought some facts on water table. However, Punjab informed the central government authorities that it had not conducted any new study, sources said. According to them, the water table study should be conducted across the country to know the exact situation. Sources said that the Punjab government was about to launch a number of development projects in the water sector. Most of these projects would be foreign donors-assisted. The media campaign, according to sources, was aimed at highlighting the issue to keep the donor agencies intact. The depleting water table is becoming a major issue in some parts of the country, especially in Balochistan, where centuries old karez system is vanishing. The government has already started paying attention to this issue in Balochistan that witnessed a fast decline in the water table in the past few years. The government has already planned to build delay-action dams in Balochistan. Some of these dams are purely built for providing clean drinking water. For irrigation purposes, a mega project of building Kacchi Canal is already under execution. It will be 500 kilometres long-300 kilometres in Punjab and 200 kilometres in Balochistan. It will be constructed at a cost of Rs 32.5 billion. Sources said that the government was disturbed over the water table drop in Balochistan, when the Punjab government also raised the issue. The Punjab government failed to provide any data when central authorities contacted them in this regard. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008