News
Relief measures taken for drought stricken Cholistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 : The difficulties of the people of drought stricken area of Cholistan desert are being eased as the fruits of the Project for Mitigation of Drought Disaster in Cholistan have started reaching them.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology through Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR).
The major components of the project are Rainwater ponds, filter plants, Reverse Osmosis plants and installation of turbines.
Ch Nauraiz Shakoor Khan, Federal Minister for Science and Technology is taking personal interest in the project to ensure its success.
The project is providing relief to .10 million humans and 2.0 million livestock.
The project has made considerable progress, 80 reservoirs have been completed each having storage of 4.0 million gallons benefiting large community by providing drinking water for human beings and livestock.
The potential for storage of rainwater is more than 320 million gallons.
The desilting of 40 old tobas has been completed generating storage capacity of more than 10 million gallons.
Twenty deep turbines have been installed to overcome water scarcity by utilizing ground water, having water pumping potential of more than 1400 million gallons per year. Two Reverse Osmosis systems have been installed to produced good quality water for domestic, livestock and other uses with potential of more than 5.0 million gallons per year.
The project further seeks to develop rainwater-harvesting system by collection of rainwater in the storage ponds prepared on the basis of scientific data. The rainwater would also be filtered through sand filter for human consumption.
The total water requirement in the Cholistan is likely to be met from the water sources developed by the project activities, which envisages 1700 million gallons per year.
This project will save 6000 million rupees per year in the form of live stock production besides checking human and livestock migration toward irrigated area.