The government should ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses 1997, said environmentalists, academics and rights activists.
They said if Bangladesh had ratified the convention, it would have been binding for India to refrain from diverting water of international rivers unilaterally.
The concerned citizens made the demand at a discussion organised by 12 environmental organisations at the National Press Club yesterday.
They advocated for Bangladesh’s ratification of the convention on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses for securing the rightful share of all the international rivers’ water.
The 1997 convention is the only international treaty on the uses and conservation of all waters that cross international boundaries.
According to the convention, the countries signing the treaty will not be able to take any harmful step for their member countries.
To turn the convention into a law, it needs to be ratified by its 35 member countries.
The speakers at the discussion blamed the Bangladesh government for negligence in signing the convention.
Bangladesh voted in favour of the convention while it came into being in 1997.
Vietnam signed the convention last month as the 35th signatory and the convention would be turned into a law in August.
Prof Nazrul Islam, an urban planner, urged the government to sign the convention immediately.
Prof Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University criticised the government for the delay in signing the treaty.
“Our government thinks that the Indian government is a powerful one, and because of its submissive foreign policy, the government delays signing the convention,” he said.
Chaired by M Inamul Haque, the programme was addressed, among others, by Prof Asif Nazrul and keynote speaker Hasnat Kaium.