The issues must be addressed in order to avert any environmental catastrophe, they said at a seminar on 'Transboundary Water Resource Management: Issues and Concerns' organised by IUCN at Cirdap auditorium in the city.

Lack of political will is holding back South Asian water negotiations that seemed to have stalled, said Ainun Nishat, country representative of IUCN.

Speaking as the chief guest, Foreign Adviser Iftekhar A Chowdhury said a 'positive trajectory' in Indo-Bangla relations will facilitate water resources negotiations between the two countries.

Bangladesh has 57 common rivers in the region, 50 of which are shared exclusively by India and Bangladesh, and only two are shared by China, India and Bangladesh.

The adviser said, "We cannot afford to live in isolation; the costs are far too many."

Both Bangladesh and India could reach a win-win situation, if they cooperate in addressing the issues of bio-diversity, desertification and intrusion of salinity and in facing the challenge of 'atmospheric changes', he said.

In his main presentation, Nishat outlined a litany of environmental disasters ranging from floods, droughts and fisheries' migration to the fall in water quality and increasing salinity. He felt trans-boundary water negotiations are imperative to resolve these issues.

One of the major reasons for stagnancy in the water-sharing negotiations is that the "Institutional setup is not working", he said referring to the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission (JRC).

The JRC is a statutory body comprised of technical experts who cannot make 'binding decisions' and as such, politicians still hold the key, he said. "Either make them more powerful or just give them all the power," he said.

He also said Bangladesh should play an active role in ratifying the 'Convention on the law of the non-navigational uses of international water resources'.

Other speakers called for a greater participatory approach, cooperation with bordering Indian provinces and redefining the 'rights' to water.

Prof KB Sazzadur Rasheed of Buet and MH Siddiqi also spoke while Mahfuz Ullah, chairperson of IUCN Bangladesh National Committee, gave the welcome address.