Hyderabad:Telangana, in view of the rapid strides it has made in expansion of the irrigation sector adding substantially to its food grain production, was approached by representatives of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage on Friday with a request to involve itself in hosting its International Congress. The 25th Congress of the ICID and its 74th International Executive Council meeting will be held at Visakhapatnam from November 1 to 8.
Dr K Yella Reddy, Vice President, ICID and R Giridhar, Director, Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (INCID), Central Water Commission met TS Engineer –in- chief of Irrigation C Muralidhar at Jala Soudha and appraised him of the planning and agenda of the Congress, a triennial event being hosted by India after a gap of 57 years. It was held last time in New Delhi in 1966. They urged him to take up the request with the government and ensure it would a party to the mission to make the Congress a success.
Dr Yella Reddy explained that more than 78 countries are members of ICID, which was established in 1957 with only 8 countries during Nehru’s time. Over 95 per cent of the world’s irrigation water systems are operational in the member countries.
More than 500 foreign representatives and 750 experts in the field of agricultural water will take part in the conferences which will organized from November 1 to 8 with the theme of ‘Tackling water scarcity in agriculture’. He said the ICID would give awards to World Heritage Irrigation structures. In 2018, the awards were given to Sadarmat and Kamareddy Peddavagu projects in Telangana.
Muralidhar assured the representatives of ICID that the matter will be taken to the attention of the government.
ICID Conference International Committee Director Giridhar, CWC Director Ramesh Kumar and CM OSD Sridhar Rao Deshpande were among those who met Engineer-in- chief on the occasion.