New Delhi Aug 20 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday stressed the need to educate the masses about the ecological importance of rivers and water bodies, and urged people not to pollute or degrade them.

In a Facebook post, after visiting the Tungabhadra dam at Hospete in Ballari district of Karnataka, the vice president underlined the need to preserve and conserve the country's finite water resources for future generations.

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"A river is very much like a living entity and let us pledge to keep its purity and sanctity intact," he said.

Retireating the need to provide irrigation facilities to all farmers, Naidu said that as a farmer's son, he understands the importance of water for agriculture.

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Referring to the Tungabhadra Dam and its natural surroundings, Naidu said he was overwhelmed by the magnificence and vastness of nature's 'virat swaroop'.

Underlining the role played by the Tungabhadra Multipurpose Project in the development of the region, he said by irrigating vast farmlands, generating power and driving tourism, it is serving the nation in multiple ways.

Recalling the history of dam, Naidu wrote that though the initial idea of constructing the dam was conceived in 1860s to provide irrigation facilities to the famine-prone Rayalaseema region, it was only in 1944 that the governments of Madras and Hyderabad arrived at a final decision to jointly implement the project.

Visionary engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya played a key role in deciding the design and construction methods of the dam. http://ptinews.com/images/pti.jpg “We bring the World to you" Disclaimer : This e-mail message may contain proprietary, confidential or legally privileged information for the sole use of the person or entity to whom this message was originally addressed. Please delete this e-mail, if it is not meant for you.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)