Plea to conserve water

Hyderabad: Major and Medium Irrigation Minister P Sudarshan Reddy called on the public to adopt water conservation mechanisms in their day-to-day activities and by reducing water wastage. The Minister was speaking at a programme organised by the Water and Land Management Training and Research Institute (Walamtari) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), observing the World Water Day on Friday. He also stressed the need for increased use of drippers and sprinkler for irrigation on a large scale. The Minister called on the water engineers to carry out work with high standards so that they stand as testimony of quality for decades to come. Minor Irrigation Minister TG Venkatesh, who chaired the programme, put some interesting questions to the students about scarcity of water and discussed the future without water. He exhorted students to attempt to answer the questions. He gave a cash award of Rs 1,000 to each student who attempted. Interestingly, all those who attempted were girls. He said the water that the State was using, could irrigate 5 times more area by following the Israel technology. Prior to the programme a panel discussion was held on the National Water Policy-2012 and its implications. Dr Jayakumar, Professor, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal gave a lecture on International Cooperation for Water. Indo-French Center for Groundwater Research's experiences were shared.