Water experts on Sunday urged the government to strengthen cooperation with neighbouring countries to address the future water demand as water scarcity is growing in the
South Asia region.
“It’s imperative to have a regional cooperation for river basin management, targeting food and energy security, environmental sustainability and adaptation to climate change,” IWM deputy executive director Abu Saleh Khan told a discussion.
He stressed the need for introducing a joint taskforce for integrated water resource management in the Ganges River Basin — Nepal, India and Bangladesh — and the Brahmaputra River Basin — China, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Water Partnership in association with the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in association, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) organised the discussion at BARC auditorium in the capital, marking the World water Day 2015.
Water Resources Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, State Minister for Water Resources M Nazrul Islam, Dr Water Resources Secretary Dr Zafor Ahmed Khan, CEGIS Executive Director Engr Waji Ullah, among others, spoke at the discussion held with BWDB director general Engr Abur Rob Miah in the chair.
Making his power-point presentation, Abu Saleh Khan predicted that the country’s around 8,000 squire kilometers area will be severely affected by climate change-induced drought in Robi reason in the future.
“Runoff of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna will reduce by 32 percent, 25 percent and 17 percent respectively minimising the surface water irrigation potential,” he added.
To address the future water problems in the country, the water expert suggested developing flood and storm surge forecasting technology for increasing lead time of forecast and implementing riverbank erosion monitoring management.
Speaking as the chief guest, Water Resources Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud said once people used to think there would be no water problem in the country as three major rivers — Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna — run through the land.
“But gone are the days, now we must think how we use our water more efficiently as the scarcity of water is on the rise here,” he said.
Referring to the rampant use of water in irrigation, the Water Resources Minister said: “We, in many cases, use 10 times more water in irrigation than Japan. We are a poor country. We cannot afford it because water has an economic value.”
About trans-boundary water problems, he said it is quite impossible to deal with the water-related problems without strengthening regional cooperation.
Dr. Khandakar Azharul Haq, vice president, BWP, Dr. Umme Kulsum Novera, Prof, department of water resources engineering, BUET, Md Mahfuzur Rahman, director, Char Development and Settlement Project – 4, BWDB took part in the discussion among others.
