International Executive Council (IEC) Meeting is the highest decision-making body of ICID. It is vested with the management of the affairs of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage. All matters of policy that may be initiated or sponsored by any member National Committee or Office Bearer or by the Management Board comes under its purview. It may itself initiate and determine or otherwise advise and lay down any policies, decisions pertaining to the matters of strategic importance. Every year IEC Meeting is organized to discuss the executive, administrative and financial functions of ICID. This year, the 71st ICID IEC Meeting was organized virtually from ICID Central Office due to Covid-19 caused complications worldwide. The meeting was held in two sessions on 7th December and 8th December 2020 to deliberate upon important issues concerning ICID. 

The first session held on 7th December 2020 took decisions based on the outcomes and recommendations of the work bodies and permanent committees presented through the reports of the Chairs of the Permanent Committees on Finance, Strategy and Organization and Technical Matters of ICID. The second session held on 08 December 2020 took decisions on the rescheduling of future ICID events for which the dates and venues had already been fixed, besides the announcement of awards, recognition of structures, announcement of results of election of office bearers and honoring the retiring office-bearers and chairs of work bodies with plaques.  The 71st IEC meeting held virtually turned out to be a huge success with the participation of more than 150 participants from all over the continent. 
 

Some of the highlights from the meeting are:

• Vice President Dr. Marco Arcieri from Italy is elected as the Chair of Permanent Finance Committee (PFC) while Md. Mahmudar Rahman from Bangladesh and Mr. Bryan Ward from Australia joined the committee as members.
• Following members have become part of the ICID network as direct members Prof. (Mr.) Arun Kumar, (India); Mr. Ashok Karva, (India); Dr. (Mr.) Ahmed E. Elshaikh, (Sudan); and Mr. Anton Urfels, (Germany)

Two new working groups will be established as follows:

• Working Group on Land Drainage under Strategy Theme ‘Scheme’ - To promote drainage as part of integrated water resources management.
• Working Group on Water Food Energy Nexus under Strategy Theme ‘Basin’ - To exchange information, knowledge, and experience, as well as networking on the Water-Food-Energy Nexus topic in order to be up to date with new developments, methods, and approaches.  

The meeting concluded with the closing remarks of the outgoing President Eng. Felix Reinders. He congratulated the incoming President Dr. Ragab Ragab and wished that he would bring new activities to ICID and will take ICID to greater heights. President Felix assured his continued support to ICID as President Hon. in the future. He acknowledged the role played by the Secretary-General and Central Office in the successful execution of ICID activities and thanked them for organizing the virtual 71st IEC meeting in an efficient manner.

ICID 70^th Anniversary Celebrations: Global Launch of Coffee Table Book 2020
 

Celebrating the 70th Year of ICID’s Formation (ICID70), beginning from 24 June 2019 many activities were organized ranging from seminars, webinars, videos, workshops, and virtual events. The year-long celebrations were planned in such a way that it would provide an excellent opportunity to reconnect with the past and new members of ICID as well as various water sector stakeholders, and act as a catalyst in ICID’s future years of growth.

One of the key publications in the celebration is the Coffee Table Book, which is considered to be a repertoire of knowledge and information on the growth and evolution of ICID over its 70 years of its existence. ICID Coffee Table Book 2020’s global launch was organized during the 71st IEC Meeting on 8th December 2020. It was presented virtually by President Felix during the Council meeting.  President acknowledged the bringing out of Coffee Table Book as one of the highlights of his period of the presidency and expected that it would serve as a reference book as well as collectible among irrigation and drainage fraternity. The book along with congratulatory messages from international industry leaders’ traces ICID’s journey within the irrigation and drainage landscape over the years. It presents a brief introduction about ICID’s awards, publications, knowledge platforms, and international networks.

The upcoming publications commemorating ICID’s 70 years within the irrigation industry are (i) 2nd Edition of Water Saving in Agriculture and (ii) ICID Registered World Heritage Irrigation Structures which will be brought out during the concluding function that is proposed to be organized during ICID’s annual events in 2021 in Morocco.

World Heritage Irrigation Structure Recognized , 2020

ICID identifies, recognizes, and maintains a record of World Heritage Irrigation Structures of archival value that are more than a century old and help understand the evolution of irrigation systems among civilizations across the world. This concept was mooted at the 63rd International Executive Council (IEC) Meeting held at Adelaide, Australia in 2012. The idea is to conserve these heritage structures for posterity on the lines of the world heritage sites recognized by UNESCO. The Management Board (MB) at its first virtual meeting of 2018 (MB-1/18) held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 03 May 2018 revised the name of the scheme from Heritage irrigation Structures (HIS) to World Heritage Irrigation Structures (WHIS). Fourteen heritage structures have been recognized by ICID in the year 2020.
So far, over 100 such heritage structures have been recognized by ICID. For details, please visit: http://icid-ciid.org/award/his/44
Recognized Structures during 71st IEC Meeting, 8th December 2020.

• China (4): Tianbao Weir, Longshou Canal, and Ancient Luohe River Irrigation District, 36 Weirs of Baishaxi Stream and Sangyuanwei Polder Embankment System
• India (4): Cumbum Tank, Dhamapur Lake, KC Canal (Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal) and Porumamilla Tank (Anantharaja Sagaram)
• Iran (2): Zarch Qanat and Moon Qanat
• Japan (3): Tenguiwa Irrigation System, Bizenkyo Irrigation System, and Jyosai-Gokuchi Irrigation System
• Republic of Korea (1): Goseong Dumbeong (Goseong Coastal Area Pond Irrigation System)

Best Paper Award Winners  2020

The ICID Journal ‘Irrigation and Drainage’ is the flagship publication of ICID. The journal is a prestigious, peer-reviewed publication, publishing original papers on scientific, engineering, environmental and socio-economic issues associated with irrigation and drainage. It is a rich resource of reference to professionals, engineers, researchers, university professors, and students of irrigation, drainage, and agriculture disciplines. Its management is governed by an International Editorial Board (EB).
'Best Paper Award' was started in 2006 to recognize the outstanding papers contributed to ‘Irrigation and Drainage’, annually.  The award consists of a citation plaque and either US$ 500 cash or US$ 800 worth of Wiley books from M/s. Wiley Blackwell (UK).  During the 71st IEC Meeting, the Best Paper Award 2020 was presented to Krishna Reddy Kakumanu, VP Yella Reddy Kaluvai, M. Balasubramanian, Udaya Sekhar Nagothu, Gurava Reddy Kotapati, and Sunitha Karanam from India for their outstanding paper entitled ‘Adaptation to climate change: Impact of capacity building, India’ published in Volume 68 Issue 1 (2019) of Irrigation and Drainage - The Journal of ICID

WatSave Award Winners – 2020

1. Innovative Water Management Award  
 

Mr. Mahdi Afsari (Iran) for his work on “Sub-surface Irrigation and Tree Shades”, Introduction of drip irrigation and sub-surface irrigation technology to adapt to water scarcity in Faizabad-MahVelat area in Khorasan Razavi province. Awnings for pomegranate trees along with steam generators were developed against higher temperatures. It resulted in a significant reduction in water consumption with better pomegranate production.
 

2. Technology Award

Dr. Nasser Sedaghati (Iran) for his work on “Use a Low-Pressure Sub-surface Irrigation System with Perforated PVC Pipes to reduce Water Consumption in Pistachio Orchards”. In this system, water is conveyed from the source to the subsurface gravity pipes that are perforated around the root zone of the trees. There are also vertical tubes installed for ventilation. It resulted in a 25% reduction in water consumption (about 1,800 m3/ha) and a 62% increase in water use efficiency compared to flood irrigation.

3. Young Professional Award

Mr. Mohammad Sadegh Keshavarz and Dr. Hamed Ebrahimian (Iran) for their work on “Reduction of Water and Phosphorous Losses and Soil Erosion by Micro-Dams in Furrow Irrigation”, Micro-dams were built as water barriers inside the irrigated furrows to reduce surface water velocity and consequently reduce runoff and soil erosion losses in open-end furrows. The effectiveness of micro-dams in controlling erosion techniques can be adequately used for sloping areas where the soil is prone to erosion.

4. Farmers Award
 

Mr. Mekala Siva Shankar Reddy (India) for his work on “Micro Irrigation with Fertigation”, Despite adverse weather conditions in a drought-prone area in Southern India, Mr. Reddy successfully harvested healthy crops using water-conserving irrigation practices like drip and micro-sprinklers with the use of organic inputs and mulching. He has economically harvested a variety of crops such as grape (red & green), fig, hybrid papaya, pomegranate, hybrid muskmelon, pink guava, chia, and quinoa. 

Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab (UK)

Prof. Choi, Jin-Yong (South Korea)	Dato‘ Ir. Nor Hisham bin Mohd Ghazali (Malaysia)	Eng. Rafat Nael AbdulGhani  Al-Intaki  (Iraq)

During the 71st IEC Meeting, Secretary-General AB Pandya was re-nominated as ICID’s Secretary-General for a further period of four years starting from 01 January 2021 to 31 December 2024. The Council members expressed their appreciation for the excellent work being undertaken by the Central Office under his leadership during his tenure.
Eng. A. B. Pandya, from India, is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) New Delhi. He completed his M.Tech in Structural Engineering (1983). SG Pandya has over 40 years of professional experience in water resources and irrigation planning, design, implementation, and financing. He has a sound knowledge of various aspects of irrigation and drainage engineering with a strong competence in leveraging technologies in core areas, especially Information Technology. He specializes in dam design and related activities. He has over twenty technical publications to his credit. He began his career with the Central Water Commission (CWC) in 1977 as Assistant Director and later served as its Chairman. In his professional career, he occupied top positions in various Government of India (GoI) offices under the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), including Director-General, National Water Development Agency (NWDA) and Chairman and Managing Director, National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC). He also served as the Vice President of ICID for the period 2014-16 and made an active contribution to the various activities of the Commission. An avid proponent of irrigation and hydropower projects, he has been a key figure behind the establishment of International flagship events like ‘India Water Week’ for MoWR, and also established the ‘National Conference on Dam Safety’, an annual event with assistance from World Bank-funded Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP). Formerly, Chairman, Central Water Commission (an apex body under Government of India) in New Delhi, India, he may be contacted at e-mail: sec-gen@icid.org.