Every government likes to build.

A new building earns a ribbon-cutting ceremony. A new bridge becomes a headline. A new hospital is hailed as a symbol of progress. Concrete is photogenic. Construction wins elections.

Maintenance, by contrast, is invisible.

No minister inaugurates a repaired barrage gate. No television crew covers the desilting of a canal. There is no applause for replacing worn-out hoists, repairing canal linings, strengthening embankments or servicing regulators before they fail.

Yet civilisations are not sustained by what they build.They are sustained by what they preserve.

That is why the recently announced Punjab Budget should be judged not only by the new projects it promises, but also by the assets it proposes to preserve. Buried within the 2026–27 budget is a line item that received almost no public attention: the money allocated for the Irrigation Department’s repairs and maintenance.

That is the amount Punjab has allocated this year, under the object head Repairs and Maintenance, for the upkeep of one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world.

To many readers, it sounds like a substantial sum.

Walk along almost any distributary and the first signs of neglect are easy to find. A cracked canal lining. Vegetation is forcing its way through masonry joints. Gates that no longer close properly. Inspection of roads washed away by previous floods. Regulators are awaiting repairs. Silt is slowly reducing the carrying capacity. None of these defects is dramatic enough to make the evening news. But together they determine whether millions of acres receive water when they need it.

Punjab’s irrigation system is not merely another government department. It comprises 13 barrages, 25 main canals, 13 inter-river link canals, thousands of hydraulic structures, tens of thousands of kilometres of canals and distributaries, and the engineering works that sustain agriculture across the province.

Good governments do not measure success only by the assets they create. They also measure it by how responsibly they preserve the assets they inherit

Good governments do not measure success only by the assets they create. They also measure it by how responsibly they preserve the assets they inherit

It is also one of Pakistan’s largest public assets.

Official........

© The Friday Times