Continuum Of Our Land Mass Into Bay Of Bengal
Key to our economic prosperity
RECENTLY it has been noticed that the print and electronic media have been focusing quite well on the resources of the Bay of Bengal. Of course these may have different meanings for our people. Coastal people might be thinking that it has something to do with the fishery resources at sea and may be their unending sufferings due to straying over the non-delineated maritime boundaries will come to an end and possibilities of landing into jails of neighbouring countries and thus loosing their costly nets and the only means of livelihood may decrease. Environmentalists may be relating the issue to the ecology of the coast, health of Sunderban mangroves and other coastal habitats. Some of the academicians may be hinting at the potential of minerals, oils and gas likely to be found in the deep and shallow water blocks of the Bay. Some may be worried about the security of maritime areas and the need for proper surveillance through the Navy or Coast guard. However, these issues generally discussed did not confine to only 12nm of the Territorial Sea, over which Bangladesh has total sovereignty, or on another 24 nm of Contiguous Zone over which we have rights to prevent the infringement of laws on custom, fiscal, immigration and sanitation but mostly with another extended belt of water known as Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending 200nm from the baselines for exploitation of the living and non living resources of sea. It also included important issues like settlement of maritime boundary with our neighbours and the submission of our Continental Shelf (CS) claim extending over 350nm and allowing us exploitation rights of all non living resources and sea bed living beings. The term CS actually brought fore the important concept of the "continuum of the Bangladesh's land mass under the Bay of the Bengal".
It is known that our total land mass is about 1,47,750 sq km according to the territory of the Republic as described in our constitution. But then there is no mention of our sea areas in our constitution. If we can apply the international law in the right perspectives, the areas covered by sea-bed extending seawards from our land mass and available for exploitation could be more than one and half times than our total land mass. This opportunity has been given to Bangladesh by the international community through the provisions of the UNCLOS 1982, to claim an area of the ocean even beyond the 200nm up to the point where the continental margin reaches the 1 km sedimentary rock thickness deep inside the Bay of Bengal. Our development perspectives could increase by several hundred folds, especially if measured in terms of the monetary value of the fish, and most likely oil and gas that may be found in the sea-bed of the EEZ and CS. It is also believed that the continuum will hold the key to the overall economic prosperity of the country. It is therefore opportune and appropriate to think that the window of information on the same be opened and the public be informed about the possible economic opportunities available over and under the sea and how our possible emancipation will at all come with the resources lying somewhere at sea.
This process must begin with the right initiative about how to remove our sea blindness and riverine paranoia and to harness sea resources for the benefit of our teeming millions. That's why new initiative between the public and private sectors to harness sea resources, to undertake capacity building, and to formulate policies and strategies for more effective negotiation techniques and integration of the maritime sector in the national development must be taken.
Bangladesh has already enacted the Territorial Water and Maritime Zone Act of 1974, and other laws relating to our sea areas. However, we have not been able to update many of our domestic laws in line with the UNCLOS 1982 and in retrospect it appears that these lacunas more often than not stifle the progress of the result. The time has become opportune for a fresh approach in developing the maritime sector as a whole. The frailty of the existing situation is that the UNCLOS has required Bangladesh to conform to a time-line to submit primary claims for the CS by 26th July 2011. Accordingly the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UN-CLCS) has issued the scientific and technical guidelines according to which a state is expected by the Commission to submit data on a line delineated at a distance of 60nm seaward from the foot of the continental slope, a line along which the sediment thickness is 1 percent of the shortest distance from the foot of the continental slope, and not further than a line delineated at a distance of 350nm from the baselines or a line delineated at a distance of 100nm from the 2500 isobath. The Bay of Bengal Sedimentary Fan comprised the submerged land mass of the Bay created by the sediment deposits over several millennia by the rivers that flow into the Bay. But the technical guidelines issued by UN-CLCS necessarily require very expensive scientific and technical work involving offshore scientific studies using purpose-built vessels, scientists, and highly sophisticated equipment such as those used for seismic 3-D surveys to substantiate our claim.
At the same time we must not lose sight of the Statement of Understanding made during global negotiations of the UNCLOS 1982, which had allowed Sri Lanka and India to establish the outer edge of the continental margin in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal as their limit of CS. This implies that there are no justifiable reasons to exclude Bangladesh from this understanding and hence extensive technical discussions among the experts will be essential for inclusion of such data in the submission of the claim to CLCS. Consequently, it is imperative that the momentum of the ongoing bilateral maritime boundary discussions be maintained in a conducive political environment till a solution could be achieved under the force of relevant provisions of the UNCLOS. Delimitation must be carried out according to the schemes connected with the legal nature of the title to the maritime areas and it must produce an equitable line for which purpose it must comply with principle of equity and equitable sharing as per UNCLOS art 74 and 83.
It was also assured that our claim on the CS will be submitted by 2011 subject to the collection of some data on seismic and other related survey. Such survey will be costly and time consuming but these should not come as a hindrance considering the overall impact of this project on the economic prosperity of Bangladesh. We can only stress the point that, we must file the required information to the CLCS on our outer maritime boundary by the specified time-line backed by sufficient and accurate data. This should be done as a matter of national priority with the highest degree of professional, scientific, and geological input since the oil, gas, and mineral resources are unimaginable and such resources of the EEZ and CS must be used meaningfully and cautiously for the economic benefit of all of us.
The complexities of the CS claim will be evident to the public if and when any private or public institutes/bodies dissipates information on such an important national issue and what is involved in undertaking marine seismic and other types of surveys. The time is probably right to broad base the public/private sector initiative to include not only matters related to the preparation of Bangladesh's claim, but also envelope the developmental aspects envisaged in the post-claim phase. Its rationale is inherent in the concept of the continuum of the land with the sea and its elaboration will also be evident when the outer boundary includes the natural prolongation of the land mass which is submerged along with the sloping area into the sea, rises, and the deep ocean floor. The development planners can now integrate such issues of the maritime sectors to the coastal zone, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism development, sea-ports, minerals developments, and communications. All the development programmes related to the Coastal Zone, Fisheries Sector, submarine cable, deep sea port and other proposals can be integrated with the envisaged minerals and oil/gas exploration in the EEZ. In the integrated development strategy of the maritime sector, one venture emerge as very remarkable with the prospect of radically transforming the economic, physical, and social landscape of Bangladesh in this millennium and that is the discovery of oil and gas in the EEZ and CS.
The transformation of the above vision into the culture of implementation will have a great bearing upon the idea of Continuum of the land to the sea. We must correctly identify the outer maritime boundary and devote sufficient resources, expertise and time to achieve this task ensuring that Bangladesh is not in any way denied the benefit of what should naturally belong to its sovereignty. Our planning commission should prepare short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies for the meaningful and profitable exploitation of the resources that are identified on the basis of accurate and scientific surveys and to ensure that there is no pollution or harmful consequence that would endanger the nature and quality of the environment within the sea bed and the coastal zone. After all, the EEZ and CS will be the property of the people and the sovereign state of Bangladesh and there is a definite need for a legitimate custodian of the sea-bed and its resources. At present there are only the sectoral custodians in respect of petroleum and gas exploration, minerals survey, shipping and telecommunications. It is, in this context, necessary to set up a department under the Ministry, which will not only be responsible for preparation of our CS claim but will also create an opportunity for a wide range of issues to be deliberated for bilateral negotiation and on the integration of the maritime sector in national development. It is therefore timely to address this issue as the nation traverses in the lanes of politics, agriculture, law, science, technology, and finance afresh. The owner of the sea-bed is the people who will be most motivated to carry forward its development plans, being advocates to generate the required momentum in taking the whole project to the status of national priority.
The author is a freelancer.
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