News

COORDINATION MEETING:

The IDA Mission comprising Senior Agriculture Officer, Mohammad Riaz, Senior Water Resource Specialist, Sheikh Javed Ahmed, Social Specialist, Ms Najam-us-Sahr andBIWRMD project team, including Project Director, Abdul Hameed Mengal; Deputy Director Agriculture, Irfan Ali Bakhtiyari and the project’s monitoring and evaluation, matching grants and social safeguards specialists and hydraulic engineer, participated in a coordination meeting with the Secretary Agriculture, Abdul Rehman Buzdar; DG on-farm management, Abdul Wahab Kakar; and Additional Secretary Agriculture, Imran Khan, at the provincial Agriculture Department, Government of Balochistan, Quetta, on July 20th. The Secretary and agriculture officials discussed the role of the agriculture department in project implementation. They assured active engagement, involvement and support of the agriculture department in the project implementation, including on-farm management.

COORDINATION MEETING:

The IDA Mission representative, Senior Water Resource Specialist, Sheikh Javed Ahmed and BIWRMDP team comprising Project Director, Abdul Hameed Mengal and Deputy Conservator Forest/Rangeland, Abdul Qadeer Gichki, participated in the orientation meeting with the recently appointed Secretary Forests, Rana Khalid Naseer, at the provincial Forest Department, Government of Balochistan, Quetta, on July 20th. The project team introduced the project to the Secretary. The team elaborated the role of the forest department and the local communities in the project. It also highlighted the status of the project activities related to forestation and conservation of forests. The Conservator Planning, forest department, Syed Ali Imran, facilitated in introducing the project to the Secretary. The Secretary assured the active engagement, involvement and support of the forest department in implementation of the project activities at the provincial and district levels

PROJECT REVIEW MEETINGS:

The IDA implementation support Mission comprising Senior Water Resource Specialist, Sheikh Javed Ahmed, Senior Agriculture Officer, Mohammad Riaz and Social Specialist, Ms Najam-us-Sahr participated in the three day meeting sessions with the BIWRMD project team from July 18th to 20th. The Mission discussed the implementation status of the project activities with the Project Director, Abdul Hameed Mengal, and the project team including specialists and the project based government counterparts. The sessions focused on processes and implementation status of the social mobilization of the farmer communities and disbursement of matching grants. The ongoing procurement processes of works and services and their subsequent implementation were also deliberated. The Mission specialists engaged in collective and area specific meetings with the project specialists and counterparts from the government departments, and discussed progress, challenges and way forward.

ENGAGING COMMUNITIES:

The Balochistan Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Project (BIWRMDP) PMU team comprising Social Safeguards Specialist, Deputy Director (Agriculture), Matching Grants Specialist, Communications Specialist and the PIU Uthal team, including the engineers from the irrigation and agriculture departments and Deputy Director (Irrigation) visited the project’s irrigation scheme sites of Gundacha and Nurg Hingri in the Porali river basin, Lasbela District, Balochistan, from June 15 to 19, 2017. The visit was initiation of the project’s introductory meetings with the recipient communities of the irrigation schemes. The team also visited the Gundacha scheme site. The community members of Gundacha and Nurg-Hingri villages welcomed the schemes and project initiatives, amid interactive sessions. They shared their views/feedback with the project team. The team responded to the queries of the community members and documented their feedback.

INVOLVING STAKEHOLDERS:

The World Bank Group’s IDA Implementation Support Mission, BIWRMD Project Management Unit (PMU), Quetta and Project Implementation Unit (PIU) Sibbi teams, along with the officials of the District Government, Sibbi, visited the Nari Gorge and Sibbi District on May 19-20, 2017, as part of their implementation support visit to the project scheme areas. The project and mission teams participated in meetings with the Additional Commissioner Sibbi, officials of the District Government, Sibbi and community members. They also visited the Nari Gorge Head Works Canal System. The team visited the water courses and channels in the Luni and Khajjak villages in the Nari Gorge command area and Mushkaf Spate Irrigation Scheme. The visit received wide news coverage in the local newspapers.