| Congresses/ Declarations | Position Papers | N.D. Gulhati Memorial Lecture |Collaboration with UN and other International Organizations | Study Projects (RTTP, CPSP)

ICID is a unique platform for the exchange of knowledge and information related to agricultural water management. ICID organizes triennially International Congresses, World Irrigation Forum, and annual Regional Conferences to address and discuss issues of global/ regional importance. The ICID Congress focuses on the recent accomplishments as well as the upcoming issues that need to be addressed in irrigation and drainage. The Congresses also provide a platform for reviewing a number of contentious issues concerning the future of irrigation water vis-à-vis increased demands for competitive uses of water.

During the Congress, papers are presented and discussed for two Questions, a Special Session, a Symposium, and numerous Workshops. Participation is usually open to all National Committees and their members, to the nationals of member countries, other qualified international organizations, and some of the invited non-member countries.  

So far ICID has held 21 Triennial Congresses, the 1st Congress was held in 1951 at Delhi, while the most recent (21st) Congress was held in Tehran, Iran in October 2011. The 22nd Congress with theme “Securing Water for Food and Rural Community under Climate Change” will be held in Gwangju, South Korea in September 2014.The questions addressed by various triennial Congresses clearly indicate a progressive shift from purely technical questions to global water and food issues and sustainability of irrigation.

As the events conclude, Statement / Declarations are released  based on the proceedings/transactions of that event. Such Statement / Declarations help guide the policies of the organization and set the agenda for the future. Select statements / declarations can be seen below:

CONGRESSES			OTHER EVENTS
	Tehran (2011) [ Française ]		Groningen (2011)
	Lahore (2008) [Spanish ] [ Française ]		Yogyakarta, 2010) [Spanish ] [ Française ]
	Beijing (2005) [Spanish ] [ Française ]		Lviv (2009) [ Française ]
	Montreal (2002) [ Française ]		Delhi (2009) [ Française ]
	Granada (1999) [ Française]		Tehran on PIM (2007) [Spanish ]
	Cairo (1996). [ Française ]		Kuala Lumpur (2006) [Spanish ]
	Hague (1993) [ Française]		Moscow (2004) [ Française ]
			Utrecht (2003) [ Française ]
			Yalta (2002) [ Française ]
			Seoul (2001) [ Française ]
			Tokyo (2000) [ Française ]
			New Delhi (2000) [ Française ]
			Cape Town (2000) [ Française ]
			Bali (1998) [ Française ]
			Penang (1997) [ Française ]

A position paper presents the collective views/ stand of the ICID on a given issue/ topic of wider importance.

• ICID Position Paper on the Management of Riverine Flood Risk, 2006
  
• ICID Position Paper on Development of Tidal Areas Some Principles and Issues Towards Sustainability, 2009
• Global issues related to food production, security and trade, 2005
• Irrigation and Drainage Services Some Principles and Issues Towards Sustainability, 2004
• Aquatic Weeds and their Management, 2002
  
• Sector Vision: Water for Food and Rural Development - Country Position Papers, 2000
• The role of dams for irrigation, drainage and flood control, 1999

Late President Honoraire N.D. Gulhati (India) has been called as `the father’ of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID). Mr. Gulhati was an eminent Civil Engineer, India’s principal negotiator on the Indus Water Treaty (1960), and a Water Resources Consultant to the United Nations Institutions, like - IDA, ESCAP and the World Bank. Late Mr. N.D. Gulhati had dedicated his entire professional life to the development of irrigation engineering and conceived and implemented the concept of an International Commission for ensuring international cooperation on advancing the world knowledge in the fields of irrigation, drainage, and flood management.He was the recipient of India’s prestigious award “Padma Bhushan” presentedby the President of India for his distinguished services of a high order.

In 1981, late Mr. Gulhati’s family donated a modest fund to ICID towards organizing `N.D. Gulhati Memorial Lecture for International Cooperation in Irrigation and Drainage’ as a mark of respect and for perpetuating his memory in appreciation of the services rendered by him to the field of irrigation and drainage. The lecture is delivered at the ICID Congress by an invited eminent expert from across the world. The main aim is to provide an international status and significant developments in irrigation and drainage engineering including all allied aspects like environment, sociology, economics etc.

ICID is one of the partners of UN-Water and has close affiliation/ liaison with the other UN Agencies like FAO, IFAD, UNEP, UNESCO, WHO, WMO, and with international organizations like Arab Water Council, EurAgEng, GWP, ICOLD, IGS, IHA, IUCN, IWRA, IWMI, ISO, WWC, ADB, World Bank, etc. ICID effectively contributes to various global dialogues and initiatives such as the World Water Fora, World Water Development Reports etc. ICID Central Office also functions as the Secretariat to the International Water-Related Associations’ Liaison Committee (IWALC), a group of 13 International Water Organisations.

ICID, for more than sixty two years has been engaged in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge, best practices and transfer of agriculture water management technology. It recognizes a gap between the research and its application in the field and therefore seeks enhanced support not only for research and development but also for capacity building and improved extension services in the dissemination of technology/information/ knowledge among all stakeholders, especially farmers.

A program for enhancing research and technology that replaces erstwhile IPTRID (hosted by FAO) and also to invigorate research in irrigation and drainage was launched by ICID in 2010. The main objective of the new initiative is to foster a conductive policy environment for increasing research and development, technology transfer, capacity building and networking needs of members; support uptake of advanced techniques appropriate to local conditions in developing countries; enhancing members’ research impacts by increasing coherence, convergence and concerted efforts and fostering innovation; and support capacity development activities.

So far, two Regional Nodes by Chinese National Committee (CNCID) and Iranian National Committee (IRNCID) have been established.

ICID facilitated 2nd World Water Forum in formulation of World Water Vision on "Water for Food and Rural Development" (WFFRD) for the year 2025. While the WFFRD projected substantial increase in the global water withdrawal, water storage and irrigation expansion, the integrated "Overview vision" prepared by World Commission on Water appointed by World Water Council (WWC) did not reflect this conclusion, thus side stepping issues identified as critical to the irrigation sector. It also did not recognize absence of quantification of water needs for the other two sectors viz. people and nature while making large claims. ICID therefore decided to clarify them through a "Strategy for Implementation of ICID's Concerns Emanating from the Vision" adopted in 2000. As a follow-up of the above mentioned strategy, ICID launched a proposal in August 2002, called "Country Policy Support Program" (CPSP) to contribute to develop effective options for water resources development and management to achieve an acceptable food security level and sustainable rural development. The CPSP basically aims at assessing and integrating water needs for three sectors, viz. food, people and nature, for the present and for the year 2025, with a goal to evolve policy interventions.

The broad objective of the programme was to examine cross cutting issues and offer effective options for integrated water management in its participating countries. In the 1st phase of the programme (2002 -2005) five countries viz. China, India, Egypt, Mexico and Pakistan and five partnering international organizations viz., IWMI, IFPRI, FAO, IPTRID, The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have participated. Country Policy Support Program (CPSP) was funded by the Sustainable Economic Development Department, National Policy Environment Division, Government of The Netherlands.

As an outcome of the CPSP, ICID brought more than 14 reports and a software called ‘Basin-wide Holistic Integrated Water Management (BHIWA) Model’ especially developed to provide an integrated computational framework for a basin level assessment of water resources with a view to evaluate water sector polices. All the reports/ software can be accessed at<www.icid.org/cpsp.html> for free down load.

Through this programme, ICID got an opportunity to deliberate on the challenging and complex task of exploring strategic direction for addressing water policy issues considering needs of all sectors in an integrated manner, keeping food security and rural development as the main focus.ICID believes that the CPSP output is a valuable addition to the Knowledge Base in the water sector and is be of interest not only to the policy makers, planners and water managers of the concerned countries but also to various international / scientific / expert organizations.  We believe that the entire community dealing with the water related research, capacity building, funding and policies may find the products quite stimulating and help the future policy directions.

• Congresses/ Declarations
• Position Papers
• N.D. Gulhati Memorial Lecture
• Study Projects
• Past Congresses

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