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Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project of India |
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News From
Bangladesh News Paper
Indian taskforce
member says
It was first such Indian comment on consultation and sharing of information on common rivers that came on the heels of serious concern about the $200 billion project expressed by Bangladesh and Nepal who share some major common rivers with India. "The project is not going to affect Bangladesh and Dhaka should not jump to any conclusion (at this stage)," he said. "If the inter-basin transfer of river waters affects Bangladesh in terms of lower-availability in the downstream and India goes ahead with the plan without consultation with Dhaka, it will definitely be a violation of international laws." Verghese, also the executive director of Delhi-based South Asia Foundation and a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a Delhi-based think-tank, said the river-link project was aimed at diverting waters from overflowing common rivers during monsoon and not during the lean or dry season. He was talking to the journalists on the sidelines of a two-day Nepal-India water resources cooperation meeting in the Nepalese capital. The meeting that has brought together civil society members, government officials, engineers and experts both from India and Nepal is being dubbed as the 'Track II Meeting' supported by BP Koirala Foundation. The meeting coincides with another South Asian consultation in the same city drawing participants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan mainly to focus on the Indian giant project and its fallout on the entire region. Echoing many Indian leaders Verghese said India was still at a 'conceptual stage' on the project. As his attention was drawn to taskforce chairman Suresh Prabhu's fund-seeking from foreign sources, Verghese said, "Prabhu's fund-seeking does not mean India won't consult with co-riparians." Asked why Indians, rights groups and activists were also opposing the river-link project, he said: "They are opposing high-dams. There are people who oppose the concept of high-dams, be it linked to the project or not." Earlier in a paper on 'Nepal's Paradox: Nature's Promise Unre-deemed', Verghese also touched on the river-link issue. "To the extent necessary and feasible, harnessing the Himalayan component will entail storage in Nepal and Bhutan, such as those long discussed, together with optimisation of possible inter-basin transfer alignments," he said. "This in turn will require mutually beneficial and cooperative arrangements with these neighbours as well as Bangladesh. Since the prime objective is augmentation of lean season supplies, Bangladesh too would be a beneficiary." The South Asian consultation on water issues began with the unanimous call for taking regional approaches in sharing common river waters so that no co-riparian country is affected. The three-day meet at Nepal Administrative Staff College also called upon the South Asian countries sharing common rivers to oblige to the treaties and international laws instead of taking up any project unilaterally. Over 100 experts, policy planners, academics, lawyers, engineers, journalists and NGO activists from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and India gathered at the meet, 'South Asia Consultation on Water: Options and Challenges', organised by the South Asian Solidarity for Rivers and People (SARP) and Water and Energy Users' Federation of Nepal (WAFED). The participants expressed deep concern at the way India is going ahead with the mega water project without any consultation with co-riparians like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Former water resources minister of Nepal Dipak Gyawali made the keynote deliberation with SARP coordinator Roy Laifungbam of Manipur, India, presiding over the inaugural session. After WAFED Coordinator Gopal Siwakoti Chintan's introductory remarks, its Director Neeru Shrestha delivered welcome speech. Representative from Bangla-desh, Engineer Muhammad Hilaluddin, chief director of Angikar Bangladesh and Indian representative Dr Sudhirendar Sharma, director of ecological foundation, also highlighted respective country perspectives on the issue. Later in the day, Nasser Ejazul Huq, who teaches geological sciences at Jahangirnagar University, chaired a session and gave the floor to Dhaka University teacher Asif Nazrul and Bangladesh Environ-ment Lawyers Association (BELA) representative Bahreen Khan to speak on legal aspects of river water issues. Samir Dosani of NGO Forum from Manila and Chetendra Himali, a Nepalese activist, also spoke on different perspectives. Earlier in the morning, in his keynote speech Gyawali said: "We've not been formally informed by the Indian government about its plan on river inter-link scheme. Officially Nepal's stand is that India can do whatever it likes to within its territory as long that does not harm Nepal." "But unofficially, I'll say the river-link project will cause damages to India itself." Hilaluddin said in the name of diverting water to water-starved areas of a country, one should not cause disaster to other country. He called on the governments in South Asian nations to take lessons from water-sharing arrangements of Mekong and Danube rivers. The Bangladesh representative also called for reforming the SAARC charter paving the way for discussion of bilateral issues in the forum.
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