ISLAMABAD: Inordinate delays and bureaucratic hiccups in Ministry of Water Resources has resulted cancellation of US $ 25 million credit facility by the World Bank for Pakistan’s water capacity building projects.
Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services Project commonly known as W-CAP is aimed to improve the country’s management and investment planning of water resources.
It also includes capacity building and support to federal institutions to efficiently plan water resources, their better management, improvement and development and conduct additional studies in this sector.
Despite their tall claims of realizing serious threats of water scarcity and its possible impact for the country in the very near future, successive governments during the last 12 years have failed to keep a small project worth $73 million on track.
The project approved in June 26, 2008 to ensure better management of water resources in the Indus River basin, was originally scheduled to complete by February 2014, but was extended till June 2021.
Economic Affairs Division of government of Pakistan has repeatedly asked ministry of water resources to appoint a permanent project director for W-CAP project. Instead of doing so, the ministry has been giving this task as additional duty to it senior joint secretary.
As a result of purported inefficiency and internal wrangling within the water ministry , the premier lending institution World Bank has now announced to cancel the additional credit amount of US$ 25 million from IDA credit facility No. 57000-PK for the project.
Despite agreeing and devising the targets of project with mutual understanding of World Bank (WB) and federal government, the bureaucratic regimes within the federal ministry of water resources and its attached departments, particularly Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and Pakistan Indus Water Commission (PCIW) have been lock horns with each other due to their internal rivalries, sources said.
The official communiqué issued by the country office of World Bank (WB) in Pakistan revealed that the lending institution has taken in-principle decision to cancel the additional credit amount of US$ 25 million from International Development Association (IDA) credit facility No. 57000-PK against Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services Project (W-CAP).
The official communiqué signed by the World Bank’s country director to Pakistan, Patchamuthu Illangoan stated that IDA has informed Economic Affairs Division (EAD) about cancellation of additional credit amount with effect as of 16 March 2020.
“We are pleased to inform you that Association concurs with the above request, and accordingly, hereby cancels from the credit with effect as of 16 March 2020,a total amount of SDR 18,133,813 (US$ 25 million equivalent), following this cancellation, the revised amount of the Credit will be SDR 6,966,187”, it reads.
In its latest report about Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services project, known as W-CAP, the World Bank had described progress on the project as “unsatisfactory”, a notch below the previous rating of moderately satisfactory. The report was been made public last week by the World Bank.
Some senior officials of federal ministry of water resources and its attached department IRSA are already facing an inquiry into alleged misappropriations and intentional delay in awarding contract of consultancy to install telemetry system under a World Bank’s W-CAP project costing US$ 73 million.
The Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services project is a classical case study of inept governance and bureaucratic regime of Pakistan, which the World Bank has finally declared as “unsatisfactory” after losing its last hope to revive the scheme.
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