This new online service introduced by ICID is developed to help various stakeholders in locating required business information through a few clicks. The online directory enlists all the services and products being provided by consultants, manufacturing companies, dealers, and other professional institutions dealing in irrigation, drainage and flood management. This online service is totally FREE and can be availed of by any service provider by submitting the required information on ICID website <http://www.icid.org/ypaddform2.php>. To view this new service, please visit http://www.icid.org/ypsearch.php

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

2nd World Irrigation Forum on the theme: Water management in a changing world: Role of irrigation for sustainable food production, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 6-8 November 2016.

www.worldirrigationforum.net

International RiverFoundation hosting International Riversymposium on the theme 'Great rivers of the world: Management for shared benefits', New Delhi, India, 12-14 September 2016.
http://riversymposium.com/

National Water Research Center (Egypt) International Conference on “Research and Technology Development for Sustainable Water Resources Management”  on the theme “Geo-Measurement, Field Investigation, and Monitoring” Special Sessions, Workshops and Exhibition, Cairo, Egypt, 4-6 December 2016.
E-mail: eng.mirmokhtar@gmail.com, website: www.redwarm2016-eg.org

13th International Drainage Workshop (IDW), Ahwaz City, Iran, 4-7 March 2017, Theme: Drainage and Environmental Sustainability. 
E-mail:13idw2017@gmail.com, website:http://idw13.org

68th IEC and 23rd ICID Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, 8-14 October 2017, on the theme: Modernizing Irrigation and Drainage for a new Green Revolution, Mexico City, Mexico, 8-14 October 2017.
Website: http://www.icid2017.org/ E-mail: cnm@mxcid.org, brobles@tlaloc.imta.mx, luis.rendon@cna.gob.mx, luis.rendon@conagua.gob.mx

Lebanon, Russia may boost agricultural cooperation before end of the year
11 July 2016
Lebanon and Russia may sign a memorandum of understanding for bilateral agriculture cooperation before the end of the year, Lebanese Ambassador to Moscow Chawki Bou Nassar told Sputnik. In June, Lebanese Agriculture Minister Akram Hussein Chehayeb visited Russia and while "no agreements were signed but the meeting was very important because it laid the ground, for example, for imminent visit by Russian delegation to Lebanon in July. Mr Chehayeb suggested that a memorandum of understanding could be signed between the two sides" Nassar said. The ambassador concluded that while the sides has not set a date for the memorandum signing, it could happen before the end of the year.
http://sputniknews.com/world/20160711/1042753152/russia-lebanon-agriculture.html

India, Tanzania to broaden ties on agriculture, manufacturing and small scale industries
10 July 2016
India and Tanzania on Sunday pledged to broaden cooperation to include areas of potential such as manufacturing, development of small scale industries for rural developmental needs and in food and agricultural sectors. "The two leaders agreed that it was imperative to broaden cooperation to include potential areas such as gas exploration, manufacturing, development of small scale industries for rural developmental needs, power production and distribution, infrastructure development, agriculture especially in crops like pulses," said a joint statement issued at the end of high-level talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tanzanian President John Magufuli.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/india-tanzania-to-broaden-ties-on-agriculture-manufacturing-and-small-scale-industries-116071000550_1.html

Uganda: Agriculture can adapt biotechnology
10 July 2016
Uganda's Minister of State for Agriculture, Christopher Kibanzanga has warned that the attainment of the middle income status by 2020 will depend on the extent at which the country will be able to lift a majority of her population who depend on agriculture from the current dominant traditional methods of farming. "We are only remaining with 4 years to 2020, a year which the president said he wants to see Ugandans migrate to middle income status, but with the current form of technology being applied in agriculture especially by farmers is worrying and we may miss that economic target unless we commercialize biotechnology application in the sector," said Kibanzanga.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201607110296.html

Botswana: Agriculture remains priority
9 July 2016
Agriculture remains one of the key priorities of government's developmental agenda, President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has said. President Khama said this when officiating at the 42nd Ghanzi agricultural show on 9 July. Agriculture, he said, had been identified as one of the areas for diversifying the economy, adding that the industry was a critical component of the economy and productivity of any country especially in food security. As a sector earmarked for stimulating the economy, President Khama said that government had since channeled substantial financial resources into the agriculture sector through various programs such as LIMID, ISPAAD and the Young Farmers Fund.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201607090236.html

The future of tea looks bleak, thanks to climate change
8 July 2016
Taiwanese farmer Alfredo Lin, a relatively new tea producer, would agree. He planted his first tea farm four years ago in Nantou County, in central Taiwan, and confirms that his crops have already experienced the effects of climate change. "The extreme rain last year really overwhelmed my plants," he says. "It never used to be this serious. The rain is threatening the root systems." Although Lin is new to the tea game, he’s not short of experience. Lin’s family has been growing oolong tea in central Taiwan for decades. His aunt and uncle are oolong tea producers, and his own mother works full-time as a tea picker, rising daily at 6 a.m. during the harvest season to pluck tender tea buds underneath the increasingly harsh sun. Lin calls his mother and her friends, adoringly, "mother pluckers.
http://www.eater.com/drinks/2016/7/8/12111038/climate-change-tea-leaves-flavor

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SADC needs N$40,5 billion for drought relief
13 July 2016
The chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Botswanan President Ian Khama, has said he will formally launch a regional appeal for humanitarian and recovery support amounting to N$40,5 billion for 40 million people affected by drought in five SADC countries, among them Namibia. The other SADC countries badly affected by the current drought are Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and have already declared national drought emergencies. South Africa – usually a grain exporter – has declared a drought emergency in eight of the country’s nine provinces and Mozambique declared a 90-day institutional red alert for parts of the southern and central areas.
https://www.newera.com.na/2016/07/13/sadc-n405-billion-drought-relief/

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China developing satellite to monitor floods, drought
12 July 2016
China will launch its first geoscientific satellite by 2020 for forecasting hydrological events, including floods and droughts. China announced its plans for the Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM) satellite at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGRSS) 2016 which kicked off in Beijing yesterday. The WCOM was initiated jointly by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth and the National Space Science Centre with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The CAS has completed key research and tests of the satellite’s payload in anticipation of further development. It will be China’s first geoscientific satellite that will give integrated observation of key elements of the global water cycle.
http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/tech/china-developing-satellite-monitor-floods-drought/313849/

India: Floods affect over 1 lakh in Assam
9 July 2016
Over one lakh people have been affected by to floods in seven districts of Assam for the last few days, an official said on Saturday. A total of 1,12,307 people in 213 villages of Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Golaghat, Morigaon, Biswanath, Barpeta and Jorhat districts were marooned by floods till late Friday, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority official said. The situation may get worse in the coming days as the state meteorological department has predicted more rains for Assam and other north-eastern states. “The situation is worse in Jorhat, Golaghat and Lakhimpur district where the district administration have opened six relief camps, housing over a thousand affected people,” the official said. District administrations have been asked despatch relief material to the affected areas, the official said.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/floods-affect-over-1-lakh-in-assam/263491.html

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Southern Africa facing acute food insecurity
12 July 2016
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) says a “higher than normal” number of people are already facing acute food insecurity in six Southern African countries and warns that the number could rise to nearly 17 million by March 2017 after three consecutive disastrous crop farming seasons. In its latest Southern Africa food security outlook report, FEWSNET said the El Nino-induced drought which overshadowed the 2015/2016 farming season destroyed crops and left the region saddled with a cereal deficit of between 6 and 8 million metric tonnes. In Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and Madagascar, more households would enter the Integrated Food Security Classification Phase 3 of “acute” food insecurity throughout 2016.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/southern-africa-facing-acute-food-insecurity-2044503

New irrigation canal to bring water to Turkey’s Mardin
12 July 2016
The south-eastern province of Mardin – a historic Turkish city overlooking the Mesopotamian plains – is soon to have access to water, as a 19-year-long project to irrigate the region nears its end with the recent completion of a 221-kilometer man-made canal. Work on the remaining 25.3 kilometres of the canal was recently completed as part of a joint project carried out by the Forestry and Water Affairs Ministry and the General Directorate for State Hydraulic Works (DSİ). The Mardin-Ceylanpınar irrigation channel project, which was originally launched in 1997, is set to irrigate over 2 million declares of agricultural land and contribute immensely to the region’s economy.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-irrigation-canal-to-bring-water-to-turkeys-mardin.aspx?pageID=238&nID=101455&NewsCatID=341

Kazakhstan to borrow over $300 million to reconstruct irrigation system
11 July 2016
Irrigation systems in four regions of Kazakhstan will be reconstructed through loans from international financial institutions, Novosti-Kazakhstan reported with reference to National Economy Minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev. “To reconstruct farmland drainage and irrigation systems, in June the Ministries of Agriculture and National Economy approved a joint action plan to attract loans under the state guarantee from the Islamic Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for projects totaling 106 billion tenge or $314.1 million,” Bishimbayev said at the Government meeting on July 8. In his words, this money will allow this year to start implementing projects in four Kazakhstan provinces — South Kazakhstan, Almaty, Zhambyl, and Aktobe provinces — on a total area of more than 183 thousand hectares.
http://www.timesca.com/index.php/news/16867-kazakhstan-to-borrow-over-300-million-to-reconstruct-irrigation-system

India: Maharashtra govt to set up water management units along major irrigation projects
8 July 2016
The state government has decided to set up new water management units along the irrigation projects and close its underutilised construction units across Maharashtra. At present, there are 3,900 major irrigation projects which have been completed and 380 which are under construction, sources said. However, an audit shows that the deployment of workforce is disproportionate. While there are more than the required number of workers and construction units, there is no mechanism for the management of the irrigation projects, which are languishing because of poor maintenance and repairs.
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/maharashtra-government-water-management-irrigation-projects-2900309/

Managing the world's liquid asset: water
12 July 2016
Two key events are taking place in Singapore this week. First is the Water Leaders' Summit within the context of the Singapore International Water Week, and the second is a CNBC discussion on Future of World's Water: A Business Perspective. Both events will explore in depth the role that business can play in managing global water resources. Senior officers from the world's largest corporations and leading academic figures will also discuss interlinkages between business and water. The global business community has faced substantial stress and challenges during the post-2000 period. Among these are investor demands for sustainable investments, resource scarcities, increasing scrutiny by media and social activists about malpractices, real or perceived, and continuing technological and management evolutions.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/managing-worlds-liquid-asset-water-asit-k-biswas

Egypt- Israel to support Ethiopia in developing water resources: Netanyahu
9 July 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will support Ethiopia to develop its water resources by enhancing its agriculture systems. During his brief speech in front of the Ethiopian parliament, Netanyahu said: ''Ethiopia is moving in the right direction, and we will support it by enforcing its development projects.'' The Israeli prime minister also said that he discussed ''the danger of terrorism'' with the leaders of seven African countries. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that his country supports the Israeli request to join the African Union as a supervisor. ''Israel works hard in several African countries, and there is no reason to prevent it from being a supervisor,'' Desalegn said. ''We want Israel to be a part of our African system,'' he added.
http://www.menafn.com/1094846891/Egypt--Israel-to-support-Ethiopia-in-developing-water-resources-Netanyahu

Why water deserves more respect
July 2016
Every morning, in a small town located just an hour’s drive from some of the world’s biggest freshwater lakes, a long line of vehicles snakes out of a fire station, each passenger queuing patiently for their daily allowance of bottled water. Eight thousand miles away, the residents of a city lying at the lower reaches of one of the largest delta regions on Earth count themselves lucky if they get running water for more than a few hours per day. Worlds apart they may be, but the experiences of Flint in the US, where drinking water was poisoned after a botched cost-cutting drive, and Kolkata, the Indian metropolis, are manifestations of the same problem, says Professor Asit Biswas, founder of the Third World Centre for Water Management.
https://mega.online/articles/why-water-deserves-more-respect/

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IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE - The Journal of the ICID
Articles available via complimentary online access at: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ird