Combating desertification

Bangladesh is fed through 57 trans-boundary rivers, 54 of them entering from India. The major proportion of the water is being withdrawn from these rivers during dry season causing havoc to agriculture, irrigation, fisheries, navigation, forestry, power system, economy and the environment of the lower riparian Bangladesh.

This unilateral withdrawal of river flows from the Ganges since 1975 through the construction of the Farakka Barrage by India has threatened the ecological balance in the south-western part of Bangladesh, and will turn this entire area into arid land if the river flows are not re-established. Around 123 miles of four rivers, along with the Ganges, have become non-navigable due to the formation of shoals, and soil degradation has affected agriculture.

We have the Ganges Water Treaty whose benefits are uncertain and doubtful, and may only be reached through the implementation of Ganges Barrage. It is also evident that there is still a trend of decreasing flow in the Ganges during dry season due to continued and increased abstraction upstream.

India has undertaken a multi-million dollar project to maximise the utilisation of flows of the rivers in her territory. Under the ambitious project 37 rivers in her territory will be linked to an exchange regime with around thirty other river catchments. The Brahmaputra river is now the main source of dry season flow into Bangladesh. Till now there has been no significant withdrawal from the Brahmaputra in the upstream. Under the project that India is currently pursuing to divert her river flows, it is apprehended that withdrawal of water from the Brahmaputra will create havoc to the environment of Bangladesh and accelerate the process of desertification.

The continued siltation of the major rivers like the Ganges due to sudden reduction in river flows in the dry season starting from October has created an adverse hydrometereological impact showing some indications of the desertification process. The ground water levels in Bangladesh have fallen by 3.34 metres since 1975. This alarming fall in ground water levels around the country is severely hampering irrigation during the dry season.

Increasing salinity in the coastal regions due to reduced fresh water supply has compounded the problem. Recent information indicate that the water of the Ganges and other cross boundary rivers are polluted due to industrial waste product, sewage disposal etc. coming from the upstream.

The Sundarbans mangrove forest, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, is adversely affected by top dying disease of trees due to increased salinity resulting from decreasing fresh water inflows from the Ganges.

Bangladesh is not a desert, but the over exploitation of its natural resources has gradually been converting this beautiful green land into an arid and environmentally catastrophic country. It is high time to take up plans for combating environmental degradation and the desertification process right now, otherwise we will have to pay a high price in the near future.

In the backdrop of India's intention of diverting water from all the trans-boundary rivers entering Bangladesh, we in Bangladesh need international support to deal with the situation. The upper riparian countries should not be allowed to unilaterally withdraw water causing serious threat to the lower riparian countries.

Every region in the world has forged regional cooperation for their common benefits in this respect. International cooperation for basin wide water management in our region is a must to combat the adverse effect of resources depletion, for the low water flow which poses a great threat of land degradation and desertification.

Ziaur Rahman Khan, MP is Chairman Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. The article is based on his speech delivered at the Fifth Round Table of Parliamentarians on Desertification organised by the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held at Havana, Cuba 3-4 September 2003.