Punjab Minister for Irrigation Mohsin Khan Leghari has said that keeping in view the importance of the canal system in the agriculture sector, the Punjab Irrigation Department is working on a war footing basis on the desilting process of canals.
He said the canal system is the backbone in our agriculture sector which is 22% of GDP and more than 90% of agricultural produces comes from canal areas.
The Punjab Irrigation Department is desilting 607 perennial and non-perennial canals for the year 2020-21. The total length of which is 4688 canal miles.
Mohsin Khan Leghari was presiding over a departmental meeting here today. He said in order to overcome water shortage at the tail and for equitable distribution of canal water among the stakeholders the importance of the desilting process cannot be ignored. He said that about Rs.384 million would be spent on desilting campaign in the year 2020-21.
He said that according to the vision of PM and to ensure transparency all work is being carried out under the supervision of a third-party consultant. He said that so far 40 million cubic feet of desilt has been extracted from 2,000 canal miles in 372 canals.
The present government wants to ensure equitable distribution of water to the farmers and the current desilting campaign is an important step towards fulfilling this vision.