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News From
Bangladesh News Paper
INT’L SEMINAR BEGINS ‘Indian river-linking plan to leave Bangladesh dry’
United News of Bangladesh, Dhaka
New Age
Sat, December 18, 2004
Bangladesh gets 65
per cent of water from the flow of the river Brahmaputra and if the water is
withdrawn in the upstream of the river, a large part of Bangladesh will be
turned into a desert.
The apprehension was expressed by speakers at the inaugural session of a
three-day conference on ‘Regional Cooperation on Trans-boundary Rivers:
Impact of the Indian River Linking Project’ at the Osmani Memorial Hall on
Friday.
The water resources minister, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, formally inaugurated the
conference, organised by the Bangla-desh Economic Association, Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Poribesh Andolon, Bangladesh Environment Network and the Institution of
Engineers, Bangladesh.
The former finance and planing minister, AMA Muhith, the Bangladesh
Poribesh Andolon vice president, Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, the
Bangladesh Water Partnership chairman Quamrul Islam Siddique, and the
Bangladesh Economic Association president, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, also
spoke at the inaugural session, chaired by conference organising committee
chairman Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury.
The water resources minister said the multimillion-dollar project, taken
up unilaterally by India, aiming at linking 25 rivers of the region is to
take the waters to its rugged west and southern states.
Muhit said in the last century, despite some skirmishes here and there
and misunderstanding now and then, no water war has really been fought.
About 500 registered river experts and environmentalists, including 84
from abroad, are attending the conference.
Foreign experts came from the US, UK, Spain, Japan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
India and Nepal. The non-resident Bangladeshis also joined the conference
from the US, Finland and Singapore.
Speakers hoped that the conference would reach a consensus in saving the
rivers and on equitable sharing of waters among the co-riparian countries.
Source:
New Age.
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