We must treat water sharing as a national issue: Asif Nazrul

Bangladesh must continue its effort in a convincing manner when it comes to water-related issues with India to get its due share of water, said Prof Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University’s law dept at a solo lecture yesterday.

The issue has to be raised in international forums and all Bangladeshi political parties have to unanimously treat it as a national issue, he said.

His lecture on the topic “River, Environment, Law and States” was part of the Unpublished PhD Dissertation Lecture series. Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation arranged the programme at DU’s Sirajul Islam Lecture Hall.

Prof Asif said, in 1976 Mawlana Bhashani led a movement towards the Farakka barrage for due water from India. In that year, Bangladesh also took the issue to United Nations.

As a result, India and Bangladesh signed a deal in 1996. In that deal, India agreed to give 35,000 cusec water as per Bangladesh’s demand, he said.

“Such amount of water was huge,” he said, “At present Bangladesh gets 1,500 cusec water from India.”

He also said Bangladesh itself should be blamed for not getting the due share from India.

This could have been solved if the country had rule of law and an accountable government. A political culture which would establish the issue as a national one could also help, said Prof Asif.

India itself has water scarcity, he said, adding some 54 international rivers flow from India to Bangladesh.

Prof Asif stressed that Bangladesh can use different environmental legal instruments to resolve the issue.

Chairing the event, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said as a state Bangladesh itself was not so kind on its rivers.

Rivers are dying and facing serious threats from different environmental hazards, she added. The foundation’s Director General Ahrar Ahmad delivered welcome speech.