HYDERABAD: Irrigation engineers from Telangana have the rare honour of being able to present their technical papers at an international summit. The engineers, who include Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Sridhar Rao Deshpande, will present their papers at the International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) summit that will be held in Indonesia in September.

The ICID summit is held once every three years. The international organisation invites engineers from across the globe to present their papers. The State’s Irrigation department officials had submitted four technical papers for the committee’s scrutiny. The committee accepted three papers. On behalf of the Third World Irrigation Forum (WIF), Vijay K Labhsetwar wrote a letter intimating that three technical papers were approved, said officials.

Three technical papers selected by TS engineers are: “Mission Kakatiya- Restoration of Minor Irrigation Sources: A Flagship Program Undertaken  by Government of Telangana” by Sridhar Rao Deshpande (OSD to CM) and K Shyam Sunder(CE, Minor Irrigation);

“Nagarjuna Sagar Project - Modernisation for Improving Water Management Through on-off system” by S Suneel (Chief Engineer, Nagarjuna Sagar Project) and “Tail to Head- A Technique in Improving Water User Efficiency and Productivity in Sri Ram Sagar  Project” by B Shanker (Chief Engineer, SRSP) & Nagabhushan Rao (EE).

Chief Secretary SK Joshi, Irrigation department Engineer-in-Chief C Muralidhar and Engineer-in-Chief (Administration) B Nagender Rao expressed happiness over the news and congratulated the authors.

The “Mission Kakatiya...” paper is an overview of the State government’s flagship programme that seeks the restoration of all minor irrigation tanks and water bodies in the State. Since March 2015, when the programme was launched, 20,192 tanks in the State have been restored, costing the State `363.44 million.
The “Tail to Head...” paper is an attempt at addressing the issue of water scarcity through efficient usage of water.

The “Nagarjun Sagar...” paper is an overview of how Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal managed to exceed its aim of providing water to the two zones under it, thereby improving agriculture in the region.

Three out of four submissions accepted

The department had submitted four technical papers for the committee’s scrutiny; three were accepted. They deal with subjects of Mission Kakatiya, NSP and management of water