The World Bank (WB) on Wednesday offered to sponsor the Punjab government’s projects for finding comprehensive long-term solutions in critical areas like agriculture, water and power.

Punjab was the only state that was talking about an integrated solutions-based approach to the problems relating to water, agriculture and power, said WB’s country director India, Junaid Ahmad, who met the Punjab Chief Minister (CM) along with a delegation.

If Punjab wins the challenge of water, energy and agriculture, it would set an example for the world for shifting from narrow based projects to more complex and comprehensive ones, said Junaid Ahmad.

Other delegation members included Sumila Gulyani, Program Leader, Sustainable Development; Bhavna Bhatia, Lead Operations officer, Governance Global Practice; John Blomquist, Program Leader, Human Development; Chakib Jenane, Lead Agriculture Economist; Kavita Saraswat, Sr Power Engineer and Mohinder Gulati, Energy Sector Expert.

The CM informed the delegation that providing potable water across the state, especially in parts of southern Punjab, was a major challenge as the groundwater table was depleting day by day due to the vicious circle of wheat and rabi. Pollution of river water had touched alarming levels, he said, adding that industrial and municipal wastes had badly affected the river waters.

Amarinder sought assistance from the World Bank in strengthening the state government’s efforts to combat the problem of water depletion and pollution, and provide clean drinking water and better sanitation facilities to the people.

The CM also emphasised the need for improvement in the traditional methods of agriculture, besides motivating the farmers to shift away from wheat and paddy crops.

The CM took up the issue of managing urbanisation in the state, which the World Bank team pointed out could be done either with the existing model followed by India or the China model, where Mayors were appointed as managers.

On the issue of power, the CM urged the team to extend help to the state government for further diversification into renewable energy sources, such as Solar, Gas based and Wind power. Amarinder said the state had received offers from various companies, including GE, for setting up gas based power plants.