Civil society members yesterday expressed their concerns about India’s initiative to implement its river linking project that will divert water from trans-boundary rivers to its dry areas, causing serious damage to the ecology of lower riparian countries.
At a programme in the National Press Club, the speakers urged the government to hold discussions with India – an upper riparian country – to convince them against going ahead with the river linking project.
Bangladesh should also move to the UN with the issue if discussions failed to produce any positive result, speakers told the programme organised by International Farakka Committee.
If the project is implemented by the Indian government, water flow in trans-boundary rivers like Ganges, Brahmaputra and Teesta will experience a remarkable reduction during lean period, and the agriculture, ecology and biodiversity of the lower regions will eventually be destroyed, said M Enamul Haq, former DG of Haor and Wetland Development Board.
The river linking project was planned in 2005, but had to be put on hold because of sharp criticism from different quarters.
But last year, the Indian government finally initiated the first phase of the project by moving to link its Ken and Betwa rivers, while recent Indian media reports revealed plans to implement another portion of the project: the Manas-Sankosh-Teesta-Ganges link.
Enamul Haq blamed the Indian government for not consulting Bangladesh on the river linking issue before initiating the process.
He said India’s project work on Ganges river was also a violation of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, which says the two countries must share information on the rivers, he said.
Dr SI Khan, a former environment and water expert for the UN, said if the proposed project on Brahmaputra and Ganges is implemented, other areas will also face the same fate as the draught and salinity being caused by the Farakka barrage. l