United Nations (UN) set up 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 2023 agenda. The irrigation and drainage theme is closely related to SDG 2 “achieve zero hunger worldwide” and SDG 15 “sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss”. The use of non-conventional water resources within a sustainable environment helps produce more food to realize a water secure world free of poverty and hunger is a goal for the 2030 ICID mission as well.
With rapid economic and population growth, scarcity of fresh water is increasingly becoming a global problem. Global agriculture is the biggest freshwater consumer nearly accounting for 70% of the supply. Smart use of non-conventional waters for irrigation could lessen the burden on fresh water and at the same time minimize associated water and land degradation. Non-conventional waters consist of reclaimed water, brackish/saline groundwater, raw domestic wastewater, agricultural drainage water, mining water, harvested rainwater, storm water, etc. Along with proper usage of the non-conventional waters, it is important to reduce contamination and prevent human health risk therefore, a set of irrigation and drainage techniques, policies, and strategies must be considered in the process of planning, designing, operation, and management.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a major report in 2022 Climate Change 2022: on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability looking mainly at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. Global warming, reaching 1.5°C in the near term (2021-2040), would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans. Increased frequency, severity, and duration of extreme events such as droughts will lead to yield reduction, groundwater depletion, soil salinity/contamination, soil compaction, organic matter/microbial habitat loss, weed infestation, and desertification. Proper and targeted use of non-conventional waters will prevent those adverse impacts otherwise caused by acute and prolonged droughts.
On the other hand, intensive irrigations are seen to be a cause of degradation of environmental degradation. The three pillars of the “Green Revolution”, - high-yielding varieties, chemical inputs like fertilizer and pesticides, and irrigation–have had a definite positive outcome in terms of increased food production, which obviated hunger in many parts of the world but also negatively impacted land and biodiversity and the aquatic ecosystems.
ICID has long been aware of risks associated with non-conventional water resources as a supplemental source of irrigation water and addressing the issues from time to time. The newly formed Working Group on Non-conventional Water Resources and Environment Protection (WG-NWREP) is tasked to provide guidance on the environment-friendly use of non-conventional water resources including its effects on climate and human health.
In addition to the below membership representatives from ICBA are Permanent Member.
Sl. No. | Name | Country | Position | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Prof. Dr. Wenyong Wu | we************* | China | Chair |
2 | Prof. Tapas Kumar Biswas | ta************* | Australia | Vice Chair |
3 | Dr. (Ms.) Anna Tadeschi | an************* | Italy | Member |
4 | Dr. Ashish Pandey - Direct Member | as************* | India | Member |
5 | Dr. Aynur Fayrap | ay************* | Turkey | Member |
6 | Dr. Bilge Omar | bi************* | Turkey | Member |
7 | Mr. Carl Walters | ca************* | Australia | Member |
8 | Dr. Chihhao Fan | ch************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
9 | Prof. Feng Qian | xi************* | China | Member |
10 | Dr. Feng-Wen Chen | ch************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
11 | Dr. Fuqiang Tian | ti************* | China | Member |
12 | Dr. Giulio Castelli | gi************* | Italy | Member |
13 | Dr. Hao-Che Ho | ha************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
14 | Ir. Hj. Mohd Azmi bin Ismail | az************* | Malaysia | Member |
15 | Prof. (Ms.) HONG Eun Mi | eu************* | South Korea | Member |
16 | Dr. Javaid Hussain | ja************* | Pakistan | Member |
17 | Ms. Jigyasha Rai Yangkhurung | ji************* | Nepal | Member |
18 | Dr. Karim Shiati | ka************* | Iran | Member |
19 | Mr. Melih Kayal | me************* | Turkey | Member |
20 | Dr. Michael van der Laan | va************* | South Africa | Member |
21 | Engr. Mohamed Ouhssain | ou************* | Morocco | Member |
22 | Dr. Mohamed Shaban M. Abu Salama | sa************* | Egypt | Member |
23 | Dr. Muhammad Munir Ahmad | mu************* | Pakistan | Member |
24 | Prof. Qi Xuebin | qx************* | China | Member |
25 | Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab | ra************* | United Kingdom | Member |
26 | Mr. Ragip Balatli | ra************* | Turkey | Member |
27 | Dr. Ratan Chand Jain | ra************* | India | Member |
28 | Dr. (Ms.) Seija Virtanen | se************* | Finland | Member |
29 | Ms. Senem Yildirim | se************* | Turkey | Member |
30 | Dr. Sheng-Wei Wang | wa************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
31 | Dr. Shu Yuan Pan | sy************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Member |
32 | Mr. shweta tyagi | sh************* | India | Member |
33 | Prof. Sunil D. Gorantiwar | sd************* | India | Member |
34 | Dr. Tasuku Kato | ta************* | Japan | Member |
35 | Dr. Usman Khalid Awan | u.************* | Pakistan | Member |
36 | Dr. Yan MO | mo************* | China | Member |
37 | Dr. Yang Shihong - Young Professional | ys************* | China | Member |
38 | Dr. Yury Anatolyevich Mozhaiskii | ma************* | Russia | Member |
39 | Prof. Dr. Yutaka MATSUNO | ma************* | Japan | Member |
40 | Dr. Zha Yuanyuan - Young Professional | zh************* | China | Member |
41 | Dr. Li-Chi Chiang | lc************* | Chinese Taipei Committee | Provisional Member |
42 | Dr. Ping Li | li************* | China | Provisional Member |
43 | Dr. Sasha Koo-Oshima (FAO) | Sa************* | Italy | Permanent Observer |
| AGENDA (Previous) | MINUTES (Previous) |
Reports / Articles / Documents
The Working Group on Non-Conventional Water Resources and Environment Protection (WG-NWREP) was established by integrating the erstwhile workbodies - Working Group on Environment (WG-ENV) and Working Group on Use of Non-Conventional Water Resources for Irrigation (WG-NCWRI).
Work Team on Environmental Impacts of Reclamation Projects (1986) Renamed Working Group on Environmental Impacts of Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control Projects (WG-ENV) (1986). WG on Environmental Impacts of Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control Projects (1986-2008) changed its name WG on Environment (2008-2015) and *re-constituted WG on Environment in 2015 with a new mandate.
WG-ENV [2008-2015] - Closure Report