Joint technical committee to assess impact of Ganges Barrage

A joint technical committee of Bangladesh and India has reached a consensus to conduct a joint study on Ganges Barrage to assess its impact on the environment and livelihood.

The joint technical committee that was formed afresh today at a secretary-level talks of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) between the two countries held at the state guest house Meghna in Dhaka this evening.

The committee decided to submit its reports on the terms of references of the study by September 30.

After emerging from the meeting, Kabir Bin Anwar, secretary of the Water Resources Ministry of Bangladesh, told the journalists that they discussed the water sharing issue of seven common rives out of 54.

They discussed how to make optimum use of the water of these common rivers and reduce pollution of the rivers.

Besides, Indian Water Resources Secretary UP Sing assured his Bangladesh part not to implement any river linking project without consulting Bangladesh.

The seven-hour long meeting of JRC began at 10:30am, after eight years to discuss a joint effort to ensure the best use of the Ganges water.

Water secretaries from two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh and India last sat in June 2011 in New Delhi to settle the Teesta water-sharing issues. Eight years have gone through, two secretaries will discuss the Teesta water issues in the meeting.