The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The need for regional cooperation for integrated and sustainable management of water resources was underlined at a roundtable in the city yesterday.

Experts at the roundtable called for increasing people to people interaction to compel the political leaders to facilitate such cooperation which is dictated by the unified ecological system that the region shares.

The roundtable on "Melting Glaciers and Rising Seas: Is Space for Regional Cooperation Shrinking?", organised by Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA), was held at Women's Voluntary Association (WVA) with BAPA President Prof Mozaffer Ahmad in the chair.

Dr Sudhirender Sharma, Executive Director of Ecology Foundation, India was the keynote speaker at the function while former Adviser of the caretaker government and Vice President of the organisation ASM Shahjahan, former Government Secretary and Chairman of Bangladesh Water Partnership (BWP) Engr Quamrul Islam Siddique, BUET teacher Prof Feroze Ahmed, Prof Jahiruddin Choudhury, DU teacher Prof Asif Nazrul, New Nation Editor Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Editor of Water Watch Digest Gopal Krisna and columnist Rakesh Bhatt of India and General Secretary of BAPA Dr Mohd Abdul Matin took part in the discussion.

The roundtable evoked a debate on whether climate change was taking place or the whole publicity was politically engineered by the rich and powerful countries of the west.

Sudhirender Sharma said that the global warming now being observed has come in a historical cycle and the rich countries are interpreting it to suite their purposes of retaining control on world's resources. He said that through carbon trading the industrialised countries have put the climate thing to be decided by market forces.

In such a context there will be little space for regional cooperation because the market forces controlled by the rich countries would be the key determinates, he said.

He said the problems of poor countries are not identified and initiatives are also not taken to resolve those. "We have to think our problems by our own and have to take necessary measures by our own," he observed.

Prof Mozaffer Ahmad said communication at regional and international levels should be increased to prevent environmental catastrophe.

He regretted that the low-income countries like Bangladesh could not project their real interests due to lack of proper knowledge and research.

The BAPA leader underlined the need for strengthening regional cooperation to face the problems arising from melting glaciers and sea level rise through information exchange and interaction.

ASM Shahjahan emphasised the need for increasing people to people interaction to deal with problems being faced by the countries in the region.

Quamrul Islam Siddique drew attention to the withdrawal of water at the upstream, which made Bangladesh, as a lower riparian country, to face ecological and environmental problems.

He also emphasised the need for increasing regional cooperation to protect the nations of the region from the adverse consequence of the global warming.

Mostafa Kamal Majumder said global warming is being experienced regardless of the debate as to whether the process has come as a historical cycle or due to overuse of fossil fuels for energy.

"For countries of the region it is necessary to undertake collaborative activities to reduce the impacts of global warming," he said.

Abdul Matin held the human being responsible for natural disaster and termed the natural disaster human-created disaster.