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National Workshop on River Linking Project Of
India
A daylong national
workshop, organised by the Bangladesh People’s Initiative against River
Linking Project’ on Thursday, dissected the yet ongoing mega Indian project
of withdrawing water from the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna basins on the
basis of available data and impact studies, and resolved to put up a people
to people, people to governments and government and regional opinion bulwark
against it.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdullah Al
Noman
Fisheries and Livestock
Minister Abdullah Al Noman and chairman of the parliamentary standing
committee on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ziaur Rahman Khan were chief
and special guests at the inaugural function that was presided over by New
Age and Holiday editor Enayetullah Khan. The workshop was introduced by
Syeda Rizwana Hasan on behalf of the BPIRL.
The workshop that heard
water and environmental experts, ministers and policymakers, academics and
opinion-builders, was skeptical of some tentative statements by the new
Indian government of the likely shelving of the $112–billion project,
segments of which are under active implementation of the high-powered Indian
Task Force and the relevant planning and the executing outfits.
The Supreme Court of India, under
public interest litigation, has already indirectly mandated the project that
has been taken up by the Indian government with the wrapping up of the
feasibility components by 2005, the drawing-board preparations by 2006 and
putting the project on the ground by 2016.
Dr Asaduzzaman research director of BIDS
and Project Director of SDNP
Dr Naser Ejazul Huq of
the geology department at Jahangirnagar University, Dr Ain-un-Nishat, water
and environment expert now with the IUCN, Dr Asaduzzaman, research director
of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dr AKM Zahiruddin
Chowdhury of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dr Hafiza
Khatun of the geography department at Dhaka University, Emaduddin Ahmed of
the Institute of Water Modelling, Farhad Mazhar of UBINIG, and Dr Asif
Nazrul of the law faculty at Dhaka University, presented their considered
data and views on the project.
Upper riparian India intends to
control the natural flow of 38 rivers, including the tributaries of three
major river systems of lower riparian Bangladesh (Padma, Jamuna and Meghna),
by building 30 canals, 74 water reservoirs and several dams, though the
project has given rise to widespread protest across the region.
The concluding session
where the recommendations of the national workshop were placed by Farida
Akhtar of UBINIG for the approval of the delegates after they had discussed
the draft threadbare in the late afternoon session was chaired by Engineer
Quamrul Islam Siddiqui.
Information Minister Shamsul Islam and Environment Secretary Syed
Tanvir Hossain spoke as the chief and the special guests respectively. The
intervening sessions were chaired by Dr Atiq Rahman of the Bangladesh Centre
for Advanced Studies, Mahfuzullah of the Centre for Sustainable Development
and Khushi Kabir of Nijera Kari.
“It’s the question of Bangladesh’s survival,” Noman warned, adding
the country will have to face desertification if India implements the
project. He strongly urged the civil society, the political parties,
including main opposition Awami League and the ruling alliance partners, to
take a common stand against the project, and also carry the national,
regional and international opinion with it.
Ziaur Rahman Khan requested the
civil society bodies to keep the parliament and the government informed of
all data and developments regarding the project, and thus enable the
government to take a position and resolve the issue with the Indian
government.
“If only rice output goes down by a million tonnes or just four
per cent, 45,000 persons will loss their employment every year, and
subsequently the income loss will be
nearly Tk 8 billion,” said M Asaduzzaman, adding that the damage will be
compounded by the losses in fish, forestry, industry and transport sectors.
“Adding losses in other sectors will possibly make the figure four times
bigger, i.e. about Tk 30 billion a year,” he said.
“The Gross Domestic Product will be reduced by 1.5 per cent,” he
warned. The impacts of the river linking project will result in lower
surface water flow that will inhibit the recharging of groundwater and
wetlands and create unbearable water crisis. Salinity rise will lead to
shrimp and power output loss. Mangrove output will be reduced. “Subsequently
costlier irrigation will lower crop output, which will reduce food
production and raise inflationary pressure and food insecurity,” the BIDS
director said.
The available data and impact studies were marshalled forcefully
to give the big picture of what could be a hundred times more devastating
than the Farakka Barrage.
Paper Presented By
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