Two Days in Nagarkot (National Irrigation Seminar)

Posted on June 8, 2017 Updated on March 29, 2018

This past week, I have taken part in the 10^th National Irrigation Seminar in Nagarkot, organized by the Government of Nepal. The program was inaugurated by Hon. Minister, Deepak Giri, Irrigation Minister. The workshop brought together irrigation development professionals, water resources experts, and researchers to discuss challenges and opportunities in the area of irrigation development, climate change adaptation and water management in Nepal. The presentation sessions focused to the lessons learned from the implementation of large irrigation projects, practices for irrigation management handover to the users, knowledge generation models for sustainable irrigation development, and strategies for alternative water management systems.

At this annual event, I presented my work on the “Role of Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS) to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)”. This research, especially relationships between an MUS approach and SDGs goals and targets was undertaken during my Fall Semester, 2016 in collaboration with Dr. Ralph P. Hall and Dr. Shyam Ranganathan.

With a plenary session in the end, the workshop elaborated how best irrigation sector can be moved onward and discussed strategies for the way forward. The emphasis given to the need for an interdisciplinary water management models, recognition of alternative water management technologies, and robust evidence base from which further irrigation development activities and programs can be built was encouraging to me.

In addition to the workshop, I had the opportunity to meet several professional colleagues, few of the classmates, and juniors from my undergraduate school. It was a great privilege of speaking with the senior water resources professionals from different development organizations and learning about their projects and research and sharing my work at Virginia Tech.