Friday, April 1, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
22nd March 2016, the World Water Day,
with the theme “Better water, better jobs”
provides us with the opportunity to delve
upon the impacts of water management,
good or bad, on the livelihoods and jobs.
Irrigation and drainage provide impetus
to the jobs in agriculture sector. Not only
in agriculture, water is a provider of a
variety of jobs: the unpaid job of the
girl child forced to fetch water form long
distances; the ill-paid job of a sewage
system cleaner through manual labour or
a farmer engaged in tendering his crops.
The wellbeing - social, economic and
mental - of the workers in all the cases
depends on the way we manage our
water. We can make these jobs better
through better water management. I am
sure that the international water virtuosos
not limit their efforts in this direction to a
specific day in a year, but promote public
awareness on the importance of fresh
water availability on creation of new jobs
and the role of better water management
in making these jobs better throughout
the year. Commemorating achievements
on this very important day provides the
desired stimulus.
During recent years, accessibility to
reliable water resources has increasingly
acquired the pivotal role in most local and
regional development plans worldwide.
This is well acknowledged by the global
leaders through the recent adoption of
the “Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)”, as part of the Development
Agenda 2030. Water and food security,
and poverty eradication hold the foremost
position in these SDGs. The issue of water,
food and energy nexus has to be main
streamed in these goals. I believe that
without concentrating on agricultural water
management, and the rural development,
fulfilling such goals are unattainable.
In the past decades, developing irrigated
areas in the world, particularly in
developing countries, was overshadowed
and affected by transferring management of
the irrigation systems to users associations
without achieving the required prosperity
and success. ICID should implement its
utmost measures to pave the way to
provide appropriate guidelines upon the
present and past, success and failure
experiences worldwide. Such guidelines
could be used for the present and future
irrigation management transfer schemes.
The 2nd Asian Irrigation Forum, organized
by Asian Development Bank (ADB), held
from 20-22 January at Manila, Philippine,
highlighted various areas of irrigation
such as revitalization of irrigation in Asia,
a continent holding 70 percent of the
world irrigated agriculture. ICID NEWS
presents an article that provides briefly
the outcomes of this forum with a view
to inform the outcomes to the National
Committees (see page 6). I encourage NCs
to disseminate this among the interested
public and private irrigation communities
and adapt these outcomes suitably to
meet their respective national goals. These
would be further followed up at the 2nd
World Irrigation Forum (WIF2) at Chiang
Mai, Thailand from 6-8 November 2016.
The International Steering Committee
(ISC) of the 2nd World Irrigation Forum
(WIF2) held its second meeting in
Thailand and was satisfied with the
praiseworthy attempts of Thailand National
Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (THAICID) in making all out efforts in
its preparation. The hosts have planned
for an excellent venue that provides an
excellent background for an International
Exhibition. I invite all ICID members,
consultants, manufacturers, contractors,
farmers and young professionals and those
involved in the water industry to actively
participate in this important event and the
international exhibition.
In order to privide a platform to all
the Young Professionals interested
in agriculture water management
issues and help for a meaningful and
coordinated discussions, ICID has recently
launched a dedicated LinkedIn Group
for young professionals “ICID Young
Professional e-Forum (IYPeF)”. The
group will serve as a platform for all
information related to young professionals,
training opportunities, selected openings,
availability of scholarships etc.
More than 20 African Young Professionals
are sponsored by ICID and its partners.
They will be starting a training course
from 19-24 April in Cairo, Egypt and will
also be attending the 4th African Regional
Conference (ARC) that follows from 26-
28 April 2016 in Aswan, Egypt. I take
the opportunity to invite all the national
committees of the ICID, particularly the
African members to attend this important
regional conference by availing the
opportunity of exchanging knowledge
and knowhow on the specific issues of
irrigation and drainage in Africa. I am
hopeful that this regional conference
will add value to regional scientific
development.
I look forward to meeting you all at this
forthcoming fabulous event on the banks
of Nile.
Dr. Saeed Nairizi
President, ICID