Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project of India

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Call for fair, equitable water sharing

New Age
Staff Correspondent
Sun, July 09, 2004

The Bangladesh People’s Initiative against River Linking Project workshop on ‘inter-river linking of India’ adopted an 11-point recommendation that said fair and equitable sharing of the water of the common rivers must be ensured immediately.

The recommendations were adopted at the concluding session of the daylong workshop on Thursday attended by ministers, academia, journalists, lawyers, NGO activists, farmers and government officials.

The recommendations include:

[1] Creating a national consensus against the debated Indian River Linking Project;

[2] Developing a network of social justice and environmental groups of Bangladesh, India, Bhutan and Nepal to systematically oppose the Indian project and thus create public opinion against it at the national, regional and international levels;

[3] Seeking support from the Indian social groups to represent the interest of Bangladesh before the Indian Supreme Court and present the concerns of Bangladesh before the Indian states opposing the project.

[4] Informing international development and donors agencies about the concerns of Bangladesh;

[5] Immediate signing of agreements for fair and equitable sharing of the water of the common rivers shared by Bangladesh and India; such agreements should be guided by the recognised principles of international law on shared rivers and environment;

[6] Seeking support of the policy makers of Bangladesh, Indian, and Nepal to sign and ratify the UN Convention of 1997 on the Use of Non-navigational Water Course;

[7] Inclusion of civil society representative in the negotiating team of the government on river linking.

The project authorities will forward the opinions adopted at the workshop and ten thousand signatures collected against the Indian project to the governments of India and Bangladesh before the upcoming meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission to be held between 18 and 19 August, 2004.

Information Minister M Shamsul Islam, who was chief guest at the concluding session of the workshop, said to protect her interest, Bangladesh must immediately take its own plans and must resist the Indian plan.

Quamrul Islam Siddique, president of the Global Water Partnership Bangladesh Chapter, was the chair of the concluding session.

Source: New Age.

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