The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Kandy

The South Asian Policy Forum has called for a new water management approach in the region taking the 'rivers as a whole' from their sources while planning river basin management.

"Water is going to be scare in the region soon and we should not waste time to find regional solution to water sharing," Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman as a panelist told a meeting of the Forum here on Wednesday.

He said the modality of basin-wise water management has already been worked out by experts, the problem is that the administrative establishments of the countries concerned are not paying heed to it.

Senators, lawmakers, political leaders, academia, journalists and representatives of various civil society forums from SAARC member states are taking part in the meeting under the auspices of 'Imagine a New South Asia'

ActionAid International and local Peradinya University are organizing it.

Referring to water disputes between India and Bangladesh on the Ganges river, India and Nepal on the Muhakhali river and India and Pakistan on Mongla Dam, the discussants said these are common property of the region and one should not treat them as transboundary issues.

Former Awami League MP Dr Abdur Razzak raised the issue of Tipaimukh dam now being implemented by India and said it threatens to dry half of Bangladesh on both sides of the Meghna basin.

He said India should be barred from creating such ecological disaster for its neighbours.

Ruhul Kabir Rezvi of BNP, journalist Nurul Kabir and Nawajish Ali Khan are taking part in the three-day event, among others.

The discussants are trying to map out the future of the region which should be borderless and visa-free built on the basis of a 'People's Union of South Asia'.

One discussant said Nepal alone has 6,000 small and big rivers flowing downstream and all the countries in the lower basin should have equal right on this water.

The discussants touched on quick transformation of the region to facilitate socio-economic integration and closer business ties on intra-regional basis.

The SAFTA should be made effective, they emphasized.

The region should create common financial institutions and on top of it should set up a South Asian bank to replace the Western domination of the regional economy by institutions like World Bank, IMF or World Trade Organization, they said.

They also called for creating a nuclear-free South Asia where democracy will flourish to give expression of the peoples' will away from the domination of military, elite class or bureaucratic institutions.

South Asia should have a human rights charter and a commission to be supervised by a South Asian people tribunal, they said focussing on the emerging face of a new South Asia.

The discussants said South Asia should have an efficient regional connectivity and in the area of media countries like India should allow the flashing of TV programmes of Pakistan or Bangladesh to Indian viewers.