The state minister for environment and forests, Hasan Mahmud, has stressed strengthening collective action for regional water security guided by the principle of equity, fairness and internationally agreed climate adaptation polices.
'Water is fixed in the planet. A stronger collective action is very important in the South Asia region to make water available for the people, biodiversity and others animals,' he said at the inaugural session of a regional consultative meeting at Sonargaon Hotel in the city Saturday morning.
The government of Bangladesh, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal, and the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayans, Bhutan 2011, jointly organised the 'Expert Group Regional Consultative Meeting on Development of Regional Roadmap on Water Security'.
Chaired by the environment and forests secretary, Mesbah ul Alam, the inaugural session was also addressed, among others, by the state minister for water resources, Alhaj Mahbubur Rahman, and ICIMOD deputy director general Madhav Kakri.
Convenor of the Water Security Group and eminent economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad read out the keynote paper at the session.
Speaking as the chief quest, Hasan Mahmud said the Himalayan glacier provides water to a vast region of the South Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan.
He mentioned that a significant change had now come in glacier melting, and flooding pattern and environment were also changing in the region.
Hasan said the countries of the Eastern Himalayan region enjoy similar hydro-metrological patterns influenced by monsoon and shares fresh water flows originated from the Himalayas.
He said women and children had been experiencing acute shortage of safe water in the South Asia region. They will be affected more in future.
The state minister for water resources, Alhaj Mahbubur Rahman, said the major rivers — Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus — all originated in the Himalayan Hindukush 'water tower', fed by both rain and snowfall.
The river basins are home to more than 700 million people, he said, adding that it is now widely acknowledged that the impacts of climate change were already noticeable, especially in the Himalayas.
Kholiqzzaman said the Eastern Himalayan region, one of the most vulnerable from the climate change perspective, also houses 40 per cent of the poorest population.
He said that even without climate change impacts, the region was already water strapped due to increasing population, unplanned urbanisation and unchecked water pollution.
Kholiqzzaman put emphasis on forging a regional cooperation to take action at river basin level and enhance water security in the region.
Four eastern Himalayan countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India — are taking part in the two-day regional expert meeting seeking to develop an 'Eastern Himalayan Regional Roadmap on Water Security for the Bhutan Climate Summit 2011' to be held in Thimphu in November 2011.
The four countries have already developed their national roadmap on water resources and identified recommendations for the regional level action.
The outcome of the regional meeting on water security will feed the Bhutan Climate Summit 2011 which aims at adapting and endorsing a 10-year roadmap for the adaptation to climate change in the region for ensuring food, water and energy security while maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Source : New Age
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