Don't fund India's river-link plan

Citizens' Fact Finding Commission (CFFC), an association of several organisations including trade bodies and rights groups, yesterday urged international donor agencies not to fund India's water diversion project through river-linking considering its negative ecological impact on Bangladesh and other co-riparian countries.

"Bangladesh's ecological balance will be upset if India's river-linking project is implemented," said Deputy Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Akhtar Hamid Siddiqi, a member of the CFFC, while addressing a meeting of the association at the National Press Club yesterday.

"Padma is going to die out due to India's unilateral withdrawal of water through the Farakka barrage," he told the meeting.

The deputy Speaker also criticised the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty signed during the previous government's tenure.

"Due to absence of any guarantee clause in the pact, Bangladesh has lost all its right to seek international arbitration on water-sharing," he said and urged the international community to refrain from funding India's river-linking project.

Presenting a CFFC report, Hasna J Moudud, the organisation's co-convenor, said the district of Rajshahi is already encountering severe ecological imbalance as there is no flow of water in parts of the river Padma.

"The farmers of Rajshahi division are already struggling to grow their crops for lack of water. Now if India carries out its river-linking project, most of Bangladesh will turn into desert," she said.

Speaking as special guest, Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Sjef Ijzermans said more studies need to be conducted to determine the effects of the river-linking project on ecology. In this context, he stressed regional dialogue among the co-riparian countries.

Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu said India's Farakka barrage has already badly affected crores of people.

"Some 2 crore farmers and fishermen of Rajshahi are under threat of losing their livelihood as Padma continues to dry up," Minu told the meeting.

Presenting the keynote paper, ANM Akhtar Hossain, managing director of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority, said India have completed six feasibility studies on the river-linking project, which will entail severe ecological consequences for Bangladesh.

CFFC members include International Farakka Committee, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association, Odhikar, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Women Entrepreneurs' Association of Bangladesh, Globe Parliamentarians for Environment and Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Bachao Andolon.