Message from ICID President and Secretary General
한국관개배수위원회
2020.04.10 00:00
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 | INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE (ICID) Central Office: 48 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021, India. |
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Dear Colleagues,
The global spread of COVID19 is the crisis experienced directly by some and indirectly by all of us, and hence calls for greater cooperation across the borders to turn the tide. Howsoever devastating COVID19 is, our resolve to fight it together and come back stronger is the need of the hour. ICID hopes that the members of national committees, their families and friends, personnel, and other people associated with them are all safe. We are also wishing the same for our international partners, direct members and other stakeholders.
On behalf of ICID fraternity we would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims around the world. It’s a global crisis and also the time to show our solidarity with affected countries and people. It is heartening to note that the number of recoveries far outweigh the number of fatalities and it offers hope that soon we will be able to overcome this deadly virus and stay out of danger through international cooperation. Many countries have urged their citizens to maintain safe distances from each other and make full use of electronic media to continue to communicate.
Urban labor is returning to rural homes and many of them will be re-engaging in small scale farming as a back-up economic activity to minimize the financial risks in case of any future unknown crises. To some extent, it is an opportunity for rural transformation in which irrigation and drainage can play a critically important role in the agriculture, the mainstay of rural livelihoods in most developing countries. One of ICID’s mandate is rural transformation through better agricultural water management.
The economy will suddenly find itself at a standstill as the cash circulation halts and situation is not unlike that of great depression of 1929. We may learn from the US response at that time to the crisis by building major structures like Hoover dam and others. At present, we too have a number of such initiatives awaiting progress. To kick start the cash flows the governments will have to infuse money in vital sectors where the funds employed will have to generate lasting results. Doles and income support cash transfers cannot last forever. In this context, the creation and improvement of irrigation infrastructure holds a promise as it will not only generate jobs at the local level but also provide long lasting facilities which will provide a permanent input to the growth at the rural level. Same is the case for providing more efficient on-farm systems where the additional skills available at local level due to reverse migration can provide support and find self-sustaining economic activity supporting the livelihoods.
There are important lessons to be learned from this sudden virus outbreak for our sector. The outbreak has demonstrated the increasing interconnectedness of the world. For recovery, we will have to bring back our systems of food production and consumption along with the other agricultural products all of whom rely on water as ingredient. It is quite possible that the recovery will have to be internal resources based as the global resources are already under strain while managing the present livelihoods and health interventions. Most of our developing world, will, therefore, have to rely on efficient and responsive agriculture water management for resetting our products base to provide our populations with adequate support in terms of food security at reasonable costs to ameliorate the erosion of incomes. To mitigate the adverse impacts of such global pandemics having negative impacts on global economy, we need to delineate the immediate and long term requirements and how the rehabilitation funds are directed towards lasting solutions. While a single country or organization may not have all these capacities, international cooperation through professional networks such as ICID do offer a way forward to develop them.
Let me assure you that all ICID activities are continuing though with different time frames than the ones originally planned. We remain open to provide our knowledge dissemination and support activities on a web based platform till the travel restrictions ease up. Have a look at our refurbished web site www.icid-ciid.org and provide inputs for enriching further. We also invite all of the experts and agencies to provide inputs for our efforts of spreading knowledge and support post-disaster planning for better agricultural water management.
Colleagues, we wish you to stay safe to stay forever!
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Felix Reinders
(President, ICID)
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Ashwin B. Pandya
Secretary General, ICID
Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture - Water for Food and Rural Development |
24th ICID Congress and 72nd IEC Meeting. Postponed and rescheduled to 6-12 July 2021, Sydney, Australia. Website: https://www.icid2020.com.au/ |
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48 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, Delhi 110021, India
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