DHAKA, 18 December 2004 — Water experts and environmentalists expressed grave concern yesterday over Indian plans to link up major rivers on the subcontinent, with a Bangladeshi minister warning of a pending disaster.
“If the river linkage plan is implemented upstream, Bangladesh will face a catastrophic ecological disaster,” Water Resource Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed told a conference.
Experts said that besides Bangladesh many Indian states including Bihar, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam would also suffer if the plan goes ahead.
Eighty-four experts from 12 countries are attending the three-day conference which includes representatives from Britain, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan and the United States.
The organizers plan to send recommendations to the Indian and Bangladeshi governments when the meeting ends tomorrow.
Water, the lifeblood of Bangladesh’s agricultural-based economy, has been a key issue between the two countries for decades.
The Ganges, Brahmaputra, Teesta and other rivers which also flow through Bangladesh could be involved in the Indian plan, with water diverted via a network of canals to southern and eastern states.
New Delhi has told Dhaka its protests were premature as the proposal to link 37 rivers is only in the planning stages.
India has for decades mulled building canals between major rivers.
The project was put off repeatedly due to the high cost but a government panel in March pledged to have a report completed by 2006. The panel said that if the plan was ecologically and financially sound, the target completion date should be 2016.
However, in September a senior Indian official said the new government installed in May was unlikely to go ahead with the plan.
Bangladesh, one of several countries that would be affected, has claimed the plan would violate international laws on sharing water from rivers that flow through more than one country, depriving it of a desperately needed resource.
Rickshaw-Free Dhaka
About 40 rickshaw-pullers were injured in police action in different parts of Dhaka city yesterday.
The government declared eight city roads “rickshaw free” and as part of the official declaration, plying of the pedaled three-wheeler was banned on Gabtali-Kalabagan-Azimpur routes from yesterday.
Hearing the news of the ban, several hundred rickshaw-pullers gathered at Azimpur in the morning to protest. As the protesters tried to proceed, chase and counter-chase ensued between rickshaw-pullers and police that left some rickshaw-pullers injured.
The government introduced 40 buses of state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation on Kalabagan-Azimpur route. The state-run vehicles will carry passengers without fare for the next 10 days.
However, there will be a separate lane for rickshaws between Chandrima Market, near New Market, and Dhanmondi Road 1. Rickshaws will be allowed to go across the Mirpur Road on three points — Dhanmondi Road 6, Dhanmondi Road 10 and Nilkhet crossing.
HM, Daughter Murdered
The headmistress of Siddheshwari Girls’ School and her daughter were killed and a security guard was injured by unidentified assilants at their Baridhara residence in Dhaka city early yesterday. The deceased were identified as Sabera Begum, 50, wife of Shamsul Alam, and her daughter Sharmin, 25, a student of North South University. Alam was not at home when the incident occurred. Police suspected that internal feud over the governing body of the girls’ school could be the reason that led to the gruesome murder.
On being informed, police recovered the two bodies and sent those to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy. The injured security man was also admitted to the same hospital.
(With input from agencies)
