Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project of India

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India's river-link plan to impact Bangladesh
Regional water meet says

Staff Correspondent
The Daily Star
Thu. July 15, 2004

Speakers at a regional conference yesterday slammed India for its planned river linking project saying it will create serious impact on Bangladesh.

They also urged India to hold discussions with Bangladesh and Nepal before implementation of the project.

The speakers comprising former chief justice, government officials, army men, academics, economists, researchers and columnists from South Asia were addressing a session of the two-day conference on The 12th Saarc Summit: Sustaining the Momentum for Regional Cooperation and Development in South Asia.

Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar at its auditorium in Dhaka.

Eminent Indian columnist Prem Shankar Jha presented the keynote paper at the session styled Social Charter: Its Role in Poverty Alleviation and Human Development in South Asia.

In his paper Shankar said there are some misconceptions among the Bangladeshis about the river-linking project.

The Hindu and Outlook columnist said India has planned to take an initiative to ensure smooth water supply during dry seasons. "But I am totally against the project," he added.

Delivering his speech as the chief guest, Education Minister Osman Faruk urged India to equally treat Bangladesh and Nepal before implementation of the project.

Sharing his working experience as a World Bank economist in Nepal, he said India had raised possible consequences of being a lower riparian country when Nepal proposed to set up a hydroelectric project.

"But now India is denying Bangladesh may face the same problems as the country will become a lower riparian country once the project is implemented," he added.

Former chief justice Mustafa Kamal, who chaired the session, said the verdict of Indian Supreme Court on the project's implementation by 2016 is forcing the governments of Bangladesh and Nepal to take the issue to international arena.

At another session titled Institutional Capacity Building and Expansion of Saarc, first general secretary of the regional body and former Bangladesh foreign secretary Abul Ahsan termed Saarc Secretariat one of the weakest of its kind.

He said member countries nominate different officials from their foreign offices as Saarc Secretariat staff, which is not a professional attitude.

"In the Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations), office staff are recruited through competition among the nationals of the member states," he said.

Saarc Secretary General QAMA Rahim also spoke at the session. OP Shah, chairman of Centre for Peace and Progress, Kolkata presented the keynote paper, while Foreign Service Academy Principal Jamil Majid delivered the designated speech on the topic.

Source: The Daily Star

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