Islamabad: A World Bank funded $73m project for improving water management resources in the Indus River basin seems to be in doldrums due to persistent bureaucratic interference. This has been cited in a Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services Project report released by the World Bank on the 19th of June.
The report cited “Unfortunately, demonstrable progress since February has been minimal. Discussions with Additional Secretary Hassan Nasir Jamy (Acting Project Director) and Joint Secretary Syed Mehr Ali Shah confirmed that the PMPIU now stays dysfunctional due to a leadership vacuum, and disbursements and procurement are all but stalled. The Ministry of Water and Power has on multiple occasions suggested new arrangements for project leadership but has not implemented any such arrangements, and as a consequence project implementation has effectively stalled.”
World Bank had approved an additional Rs35b in November 2015 for this project, but the delays continue since its inception in 2008 and nothing is being done to resolve it. A team from WB had visited to evaluate the progress of this project, but they expressed dissatisfaction as cited above. The report mentioned that the “Ministry of Water and Power (MoWP) has begun to re-scope the project to more strategically address key issues in of water resources planning and management in the Indus Basin, but the re-scoped activities are yet to be considered and endorsed by the Project Steering Committee and are yet to be communicated to them in writing. “
It further mentioned that no formal evaluation or monitoring has been carried out of the project outcomes and urged for the implementation of monthly progress reporting and formatting for them needs improvement, said WB. The institution had originally approved a loan of $38m in 2008 to improve the management and investment planning of water resources in the Indus River Basin. As per the report, implementation remained slow in the first three years of the project.
