Twenty-three irrigation projects could be completed in the last five years and 70% of the Polavaram finished, said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday.

Paying tributes to Sir Arthur Cotton on his birth Anniversary here, Mr. Naidu said that Arthur Cotton was a great man who knew the value of water.

He was the inspiration for the water conservation and irrigation development programmes such as Neeru-Pragathi. It was the efforts of Arthur Cotton that had transformed the Godavari districts that were drought-prone into granaries, Mr. Naidu said.

The people of the Godavari districts included the name of Arthur Cotton in their daily prayers because he had built an anicut across the the Godavari near Dowleswaram. Mr. Naidu said that Arthur Cotton was also an inspiration for the construction of the Polavaram project.

Interlinking of rivers

The Godavari and the Krishna could be linked by the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation project. There would be no more drought in the Krishna delta, he asserted. Wealth to the tune of ₹44,000 crore was generated in the Krishna delta since the completion of the Pattiseema project, he said.