The Muzaffargarh Canal lining project under which the lining of a 33-kilometer long canal at the cost of Rs 8.66 billion has failed to address the issues of waterlogging of farms. The project was proposed by then Foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar in 2012. The modus operandi of the project was to significantly contribute towards the socio-economic uplift of the people by boosting agriculture and reducing poverty in the area. Moreover, the project was justified in PC-1 that includes but not limited to rehabilitation of around 35% of the total command area of Muzaffargarh canal and to bring back 300,000 acres of waterlogged land of Kot Addu and Muzaffargarh for cultivation. The annual benefits of the project were estimated at Rs 1.68 billion, and accordingly, the PC-1 was approved on September 13, 2013, and the work started in 2014 under the supervision of WAPDA. The 33km long concrete lining project was completed in 2017 and WAPDA handed over the project to the Irrigation Department of Punjab.
Within three years, the project failed to achieve its core objectives, Daily Times has learned. Due to the non-functional of grid-free seepage control turbines and other technical grounds, waterlogging has again hit the farms and due to menaces of waterlogging and salinity have risen due to excessive seepage and its devastated around 400,000 acres of cultivated land in Kot Addu and Muzaffargarh as it was reclaimed before initiation of the project.
Channan Khan, the representative of the contractor company, which completed the lining project, told Daily Times that according to the design of the project the around 1 cusec capacity seepage control turbines were to be installed on each kilometer to eliminate waterlogging and seepage control. He added the contractor was responsible only for one-year operations and maintenance of the site. After one year they handed over the site to WAPDA and then WAPDA handed it over to the Punjab Irrigation Department.
The expert engineer, who had been associated with this project told Daily Times that there could be two reasons behind the current waterlogging. Firstly, instead of using geomembrane sheets the filters and perforated pipes were selected in the design of the project. Thus, this approach is not 100% guaranteed to control seepage because there is always a chance of chopping of such pipes. Secondly, the irrigation department Punjab has failed to comply with the operational & maintenance compliance of the turbines.
However, XEN Mehboob Rabbani Xen, Irrigation Department Punjab, admitted that there are many operational limbos and challenges on this front. He further told Daily Times that due to investigation of fake recruitment of the turbines operators, the turbines have not been operationalized for many years therefore, apart from two around 30 turbines are non-functional which is causing waterlogging.
