Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project of India

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Regarding the debated river linking project of India, a group of professionals, activists and journalists of Bangladesh today, 22 December, 2003, has requested the judges of the Supreme Court of India for an audience with them to clarify the concerns of Bangladesh over the project since it is Indian Supreme Court that endorsed the project without any consideration of the impact of the same on the lower riparian of Bangladesh.

The letter has been sent to all the nine judges of the Indian Supreme Court including Mr. Justice V.N. Khare, the Chief Justice and Justices S. Rajendra Babu, M. B. Shah, R. C. Lahoti, N. Santosh Hegde, Doraiswamy Raju, Y. K. Sabharwal, Ruma Pal and S. B. Sinha,

This letter is a follow up letter given by the same group of activists and professionals who, vide their earlier letter dated 8 September, 2003, requested the Chief Justice of India to review the order of the Supreme Court of India dated 31 October, 2002 passed in writ petition (civil no.512/2002) that virtually endorsed the Indian project for networking of rivers proposing diversion of vast quantities of water from major shared rivers including the Bhahmaputra and Ganges.

The letter was signed by Advocate S. Rizwana Hasan, Director (Programs), (BELA); Dr. Asif Nazrul, Faculty of Law, University of Dhaka; Dr. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director, BCAS and Chairperson, CEN; Enayet Ullah Khan, Editor, the Daily New Age and Weekly Holiday; Farhad Mazhar, Managing Director, UBINIG; Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Editor, Bangladesh Observer and President, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists; Khushi Karir, Coordinator, Nijera Kori; Mahfuz Ullah, Secretary General, CFSD; Masood Alam Ragib Ahsan, Director, Odhikar; Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Executive Editor, Daily New Nation and Quamrul Islam Siddique, Chairman, Institute of Engineers.

The new letter has been given considering the facts that a response to the earlier letter is yet to come while in the meantime the Supreme Court of India has again intervened in the petition concerning the project. As such a national daily dated 12 November, 2003, has reported that ”.... the Supreme Court on Monday gave six weeks’ time to the central government to file an affidavit, disclosing details of the progress made under the second action plan of inter-linking of rivers of the country....”. The group of professionals mentioned in their letter that the Indian representative of the Joint River Commission (JRC) categorically confirmed to the Bangladesh counterpart in a recent meeting of the JRC that the project is at a mere conceptual level whereas the judicial pronouncements and Indian official documents like “Interbasin Water Transfer Proposals” (National Water Development Agency, New Delhi, March 2003, p. 3) suggest that the Indian authority has already completed feasibility studies of six links!

The letter in clear terms protested the unilateral move on side of the Indian government since the same violates the accepted principles of customary international laws on equitable utilization of shared waters, obligation not to cause significant harm, cooperation, equitable participation and exchange of information between watercourse states and so on. The harms that this river linking project of India are predicted to cause shall negate the commitments of the Government of India as made under international laws on protection of biological diversity, wetland, global heritage and also defeat its constitutional commitment as expressed in Articles 51 regarding promotion of international peace and security, claimed the letter. The group has also criticized the Indian project that, once implemented, will also frustrate India's obligation in particular under Article IX of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, 1996 and grossly undermine institution like the JRC.  

Copies of the letter were also sent to  Mr. Justice K. M. Hasan, Hon’ble Chief Justice of Bangladesh, H.E. Ms. Vina Sikri, High Commissioner of India, Dhaka, Mr. Arjun Charan Sethi, Minister, the Ministry of Water Resources, India, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, Minister, the Ministry of External Affairs, India, Mr. Hafizuddin Ahmed, Minister, Ministry of Water Resources, Bangladesh, Mr. Morshed Khan, Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh, Mr. Abdur Razzaque, former Minister, the Ministry of Water Resources and  Mr. Abdus Samad Azad, former Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sent by:

Bahreen Khan
Senior Staff Lawyer, BELA

Source: Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).

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