Dhaka asking for no favour, just fair share

Bangladesh is not asking for any undue favour from its neighbour other than an equitable share of the trans-boundary river waters, the water resources minister said yesterday.  
“We are demanding our due share under international law, and we are going to get it,” Anisul Islam Mahmud told the launch of a report on Bangladesh's water sector in the capital.
The minister described water and prosperity as intertwined in Bangladesh. Without naming India, he said, “A prosperous Bangladesh is the biggest security for our neighbour.”
The country's irrigation sector is mostly dependent on groundwater, said Anisul Islam, adding that Bangladesh was currently unable to prepare a proper water budget because it did not know how much water would be available in dry season (February-May).
Describing the people living in the country's south as most deprived and unfortunate, he highlighted the need for building the Ganges barrage in Rajbari to prevent salinity intrusion in that region. “The Ganges barrage project should be a priority project,” he said.
Multiple government agencies and Australia's national science agency CSIRO jointly worked for the study, "Bangladesh Integrated Water Resources Assessment", funded by Australian Aid.
The paper outlines greater risks to water quality, the unsustainable use of groundwater and warns that the continuous loss of arable land due to seawater intrusion may represent the greatest threat to future food security.
“The growing population of Bangladesh combined with climate change pose huge challenges for water resources management in Bangladesh,” said the lead researcher, Dr Mac Kirby, from CSIRO.
Maintaining and increasing food production without increasing  (and probably reducing) the use of land and water for agriculture will be an immense challenge, reads the paper.  
State Minister for Water Resources Muhammad Nazrul Islam and Australian High Commissioner Greg Wilcock attended the programme, chaired by Prof Monowar Hossain, executive director of the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), Bangladesh.
The programme was jointly organised by IWM and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, in collaboration with Water Development Board, Water Resources Planning Organisation (WARPO), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), and Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS).