Mostafa Kamal Majumder
A country-paper being presented from Bangladesh at the seminar on “Strengthening People’s Perspective on South Asia Water Commons” proposes the assessment of the current state of rivers and river basins in the South Asian region.
Assessment of the current state of rivers/river basins from their origin to the outfall is needed for proper understanding with a view to facilitating a basin-wide approach to management of these rivers that the People’s Saarc seeks to promote.
The Bangladesh paper proposes that separate regional river basin commissions be formed comprising all the riparian countries of the respective river basins to increase understanding of these rivers and their basins and propose actions for their integrated management. The paper also underlines the need for an alternative approach – a South Asian Water Convention that takes into account equity, justice, sustainability and livelihood concerns.
The seminar is being held at Kathmandu on 22 November preceding the eighteenth SAARC summit which will be held in the capital of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal on 26-27 November.The seminar is being organised by Action Aid (Bangladesh, India, Nepal & Pakistan), People’s Saarc Water Forum Bd, Water Aid Bd, River Basin Friends, HENWAL, HYPHEN & WAFED.
The Bangladesh position paper which has been prepared in Dhaka in keeping with the Delhi Declaration adopted in March this year is as follows:
The South Asia region is characterized by numerous river basins that do not coincide with national boundaries. Many of these basins are shared between countries of unequal size and power. The same Trans-boundary Rivers have shaped the life, livelihood, psychology, technology and culture of people of all riparian countries living in the same river basin.
Sharing and management of waters of Trans-boundary river systems has been a source of ongoing tensions and conflicts in the region for more than half a century, particularly when countries unilaterally build large dams, hydropower projects and river diversions. Further, growing diversion of upstream waters outside the basin of trans-boundary Rivers has emerged as a great source of concern.
It is evident that current water technologies adopted by governments such as big dams, diversions and hydro projects have not met their stated objectives but have instead created discord in situations where harmony existed between communities across borders. Further, these projects are witness to serious, long-term and widespread negative ecological and livelihood impacts. Climate change has brought further challenges such as glacial melting, flash floods, landslides, droughts, forest fires, intermittent rainfall, increased sea levels and consequent salinity ingress due to declining freshwater flows. Moreover, Governments have not shown any use of basic values like equity, transparency, accountability, sustainability and participation of the people in intra and inter governmental processes.
Bangladesh People’s Perspectives: Inside Bangladesh 30 rivers have already died and many rivers are in the process of dying due to less flow in the Trans-boundary Rivers, thereby affecting life and livelihood of 160 million people.
How Trans-boundary River water shapes life in Bangladseh?:
• Trans-boundary river flow in Bangladesh does the ecological function of pushing the intruding tidal saline water back to the sea
• Recharges depleting groundwater that sustains life and livelihood
• Sustains navigational routes of inland water transportation
• Sustains agriculture, fisheries, livestock, vegetation, flora and fauna; maintains ecological balance and environment; sustains economic growth and livelihood; more importantly saves World Heritage site of Sundarban and Haor-Beels.
Given the current challenges that the region faces, we cannot confine water issues to nation states; only a regional approach that brings peoples perspectives to the centre stage can help create accord over rivers.
The crux of the contemporary challenge lies in creatively recovering imaginations about south Asia`s rivers as being implicated in complex relationships with regional histories, cultures and ecologies. The idea is to treat rivers as endowments, to be sustained for future generations rather than merely as short term resources to be simply harnessed and degraded in one or two generations.
South Asia`s rivers must be seen as sources for nourishing and uniting peoples, not dividing them.
Observing that
1. Development of water resources and water projects has primarily followed unilateral and bilateral approaches rather than a democratic, participatory and multilateral approach and has not succeeded in creating a cooperative framework for sharing natural resources such as water resources.
2. The flow of water in rivers is not material flow alone, it is also a flow of life and yet instead of preserving the natural direction and volume of river flows ensuring ecological preservation and sustainability of our Trans-boundary water resources, there is an attempt to rewrite the geography of South Asia through projects like river linking and networking of diverse and unique rivers, big hydropower projects and dams, instead of persuing local water options, ensuring sustained existence of rivers and in general following the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams through democratic governance. The threat of mega projects have hugely increased with the recent political developments in the region.
3. There is an absence of bottom up basin-wide multilateral and multinational approach.
4. There are no credible –project specific or basin level-impact assessments, mitigation plans or compliance systems in place with free, prior and informed involvement of the basin communities. These impacts are accentuating the climate change impacts and adaptation capacity of the communities.
5. Governments of South Asia are seeking to impose a commercial approach, monetize and financialize the water resources through water centralization and inter-basin and extra-basin transfer, motorized mega pipelines, construction of river intervention structures to alter the direction and volume of river flows to various purposes such as hydropower, irrigation, flushing silt deposits, industrial and household use without regard to the long-term effects on river ecology and social consequences for local and indigenous people who are left out of decision making and whose protests are met with repression and police or military action.
6. There is disregard for rivers’ natural drainage system to the detriment of inter and intra- generational equity.
7. The people of Bangladesh live in 3 separate basins namely 1) Ganges basin, 2) Brahmaputra basin and 3) Meghna basin. Their livelihood and quality of life are shaped by the trans-boundary Rivers flow.
8. There is an urgent need to evolve a regional policy and mechanism on water commons that work transparently, with accountability and with participation of local people and impacted people (especially the more vulnerable such as women, minorities, farmers, fishermen, boatmen and peasants), along with ensuring sustainability of the water commons, ecology and biodiversity.
9. Primary Approach to Regional Cooperation:
People’s SAARC Water Forum- Bangladesh launches campaign for sustainable and integrated management of Trans-boundary rivers.
Interventions which are environmentally harmful and ecologically destructive are socially unacceptable. In this regard it is proposed that separate regional river basin Commissions be formed comprising all the riparian countries of the respective river basins.
People’s SAARC Water Forum-Bangladesh proposes the need for assessing the current state of rivers/river basins from their origin to the outfall for proper understanding with a view to facilitating a basin-wide approach.
People`s SAARC Water Forum-Bangladesh- further proposes that there is need for an alternative approach – a South Asian Water Convention that takes into account equity, justice, sustainability and livelihood concerns. International Regulations and Conventions should be taken into consideration while sharing water of Trans-boundary multinational rivers.
People`s SAARC Water Forum – Bangladesh and participants of the discussion seminar will take initiative for formation of national working groups on water commons in the eight SAARC countries to discuss and propose the concepts, principles and framework on which a South Asian Water Convention can be drafted.
The national working groups on water commons should organise a regional meeting to discuss and build consensus on the framework of the South Asian Water Convention; form a drafting committee; and constitute a South Asian Working group on water commons to take the work forward.
The national and regional working groups will be empowered to facilitate broader consultation and draw into drafting process more movements and organizations.
The South Asian water Convention may be finalised by the nineteenth SAARC Summit.
(Editor of GreenWatch Dhaka, Mostafa Kamal Majumder was member of the position paper drafting committee of the People’s SAARC Water Forum-Bangladesh)
