VIJAYAWADA: The 25th ICID (International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage) Congress will be held in Visakhapatnam from November 1 to 8. This is taking place in India after 57 years. Disclosing this to media persons, while releasing the brochure of the prestigious international conference on Thursday, Minister for Water Resources Ambati Rambabu said, “The event is being jointly hosted by the State and Central governments. We have invited both the President and the Prime Minister for the prestigious event, to be attended by water resources experts and scientists from nearly 80 countries across the world.”
Ambati also announced that the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project will be restarted and surplus water in the Godavari River, which is now facing floods, will be diverted to Krishna delta. “This is the second time, we are using the Pattiseema project as we want to conserve water of Pulichintala project, which has 17 TMC, for future use,” he explained.
He also announced that 5 TMC of water from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project will be released to the ayacut under its Right Canal, thereby helping farmers of the erstwhile undivided districts of Guntur and Prakasam.
Elaborating on the 25th ICID Congress during which the 74th International Executive Council (IEC) meeting of the ICID will be held, Ambati said the main objective of the conference is to share technology and best practices in water management among the member countries. The ICID triennial Congress could not be held in 2020 due to Covid but was held in Adelaide in Australia in 2022.
K Yella Reddy, Officer on Special Duty with the Water Resources Department, who is acting as organising secretary of the grand event, explained that the eight-day event, which will commence with registrations on November 1, will be formally inaugurated on November 2. As many as 500 delegates (experts in water resources and related subjects) from across the globe will attend the Congress, while 600 to 700 delegates from across the country will take part in it.
ICID was established in 1950 with its headquarters in New Delhi to work towards sustainable agriculture water management with effective irrigation, drainage and flood management. Started with 11 countries, it has around 80 members now, sharing expertise and technical know-how. India held the first ICID Congress in 1951 and the sixth in 1966. After 57 years, India is again hosting the prestigious event, he elaborated.
The silver jubilee ICID Congress will have tackling water scarcity in agriculture as its theme and an exhibition on various global technologies of water management will be organised. WatSave Awards and World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS) Awards will be presented at the ICID Congress.
ICID instituted the World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS) Awards to honour irrigation structures, which are 100 years and above. In the last edition of the ICID Congress held in Australia, Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage on the Godavari River at Dowleswaram was honoured with the award. India has got 14 WHIS Awards and of which four are from Andhra Pradesh. Besides Dowleswaram Barrage, the three other structures, which received awards are Cumbum Tank, KC Canal (Kurnool - Cuddapah canal), and Porumamilla Tank (Anantaraja Sagaram).
On the diaphragm wall of the Polavaram, Ambati said they have two options before them, one is to take up repairs of the damaged parts of the structure and the second is to construct a new D-wall. “A decision on it will be taken shortly,” he said.