The department was established in 1955 as an Asian African Centre to honor India's commitment at the Asian African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia. The department offers application based Postgraduate Degree programmes in Water Resources Development and Irrigation Water Management primarily for imparting training to in-service Engineers (Civil, Electrical and Mechanical) and Agricultural Scientists. Sponsorship from the organization is essential for obtaining admission to various programmes in the department. A balanced blend of academicians and field engineers in the faculty with long experience in planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of water resources and hydropower projects help in implementation of application oriented academic programmes. The department is actively involved in research, development and extension activities in the areas of water resources, hydropower and irrigation management. The department provides consultancy services for irrigation, flood control, drainage, groundwater development and power sectors. The objective of the Department is to develop manpower that can take the responsibility of sustainable development and environment friendly management of the available water resources. Non-conventional methods for utilization of water such as cropping system modeling & planning, inter-basin transfer, ground water recharge through rainwater harvesting are especially incorporated in the course curricula. The department has so far trained over 2579 in service engineers and agricultural scientists from 50 countries including India.