The project started in 1992 from one village of Darkhana Union Council , Tehsil Kabirwala, Khanewal District. PIEDAR demonstrated that farmers could be motivated to install pipe gates (nakkas) on the inlets to their individual fields to improve water application efficiency.

The outreach was expanded during 1993–96 to other villages in sweet and saline groundwater zones in Kabirwala tehsil where farmers were facing physical difficulties with unlined watercourses such as frequent breaches, seepage or excessive silting. PIEDAR demonstrated that farmers could be motivated and organized as water user associations to renovate the head sections of their collective watercourses with long lasting pre-cast parabolic cement lining.

Watercourse renovation is a one-time activity whereas sustainable development is a continuous endeavor. The project demonstrated during 1996-99 that Tanzeems with a multipurpose development agenda could be motivated to simultaneously line all the village watercourses and subsequently tackle other common priorities.

The project mobilized around 2200 farmers across 19 villages during 1999 – 2002 to form 48 Watercourse Associations and an apex Farmers' Organization, which was duly registered by the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority. The objective was for farmers to take up the joint responsibility and in the longer run, take over the complete control of the 30-kilometer long Darkhana distributary. The immediate results included the detection of water theft and the removal of illegal pipes, and the settlement of long standing Warabundi disputes.

The next phase for the capacity building of the Farmers' Organization for revenue collection could not be achieved because of push back from the Irrigation Department.