Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), in its effort to solve the southwestern region transboundary water issues, organized the workshop on, “Advancing Water Security of Marginalized Communities Living Along Karnali-Ganges River Basin in Nepal, India and Bangladesh” on 10 October 2017 in collaboration with WaterAid, Bangladesh and Shushilan. The workshop was designed to discuss the water issue through an open conversation among the people from local representatives, stakeholders, researchers. Professor Ainun Nishat, Professor emeritus, C3ER, BRAC University facilitated the program.
Dr. Liakath Ali, Director of Programme and Policy Advocacy, WaterAid Bangladesh started the event with a welcome note, “The objective of this project is to make transboundary water governance issue based on the local context and be more implicit and be more sustainable.”Then, Mr. Arjen Naafs, Regional Technical Advisor-South Asia; WaterAid UK presented a detailed overview on the Nepal and India component of project. He also added, “It is possible to solve the transboundary water issues through productive discussion among the representatives of the areas”. Moreover, Mr. Naafs emphasized, “Make sure the voices from communities do not go unheard, particularly about transboundary river issues.”In 2nd Technical Session, Mr. Ramisetty Murali spoke about the basic role of FANSA which is primarily focusing on water and sanitation. He added, “I think this is a compelling need to generate information and disseminate information with particular focus on community experiences, community issues and also informing communities about the transboundary water issues” K. J. Joy, senior fellow at Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, (SOPPECOM), stated some critical issues of the Karnali-Ghaghra-Ganga Basin. Some of which are drought, flood, high levels of pollution, groundwater, increasing deforestation, erosion, silt deposition downstream, etc.
Professor Ainun Nishat discussed the Bangladesh component for the project. His presentation included a detailed idea about the project area, objectives and outcomes. He said, “If we want to save the environment, water should be saved for it.”The Chief Guest, Md. Abdus Samad shared his concerns, “Rivers are natural reservoirs of water. Sharing of water with good governance and participation of the local community is very much needed”. In the interactive session, Dr. S.M. Abdur Rouf, Kashimari Union Parishad Chairman, Shyamnagar, Satkhira discussed union specific issues like salinity and solutions like rain water harvesting. He hoped that they could solve the problem by implementing proper solution for it. He suggested 2 ways to solve the water problem. There are three sources of water- rainwater, groundwater and river water. But, because of salinity, river water can’t be used in any work. Groundwater is also unusable because of arsenic and salinity. Salinity in water wasn’t this much severe in recent years. But, in recent years, due to natural calamities and sea water rise salinity in water is rising tremendously. So, water scarcity in agriculture, drinking purpose is becoming worse day by day. Also, due to extraction of groundwater, the ongoing situation is exacerbating. He also suggested the rain water harvesting as a good approach to solve this issue. This will lessen the pressure on the groundwater resources. Again, he talked about restoring the dead pond, canal and other water sources to fulfill the water demand. He really appreciated the Indian technology and their ideas to deal with water issues
Arif A. Khan from UNDP said, “The challenge is everything: Too many water, too little water, too saline water”. He also added, “This project will act as beacon for policy makers to go ahead and take measures to decrease sufferings.”Advocate Ataur Rahman, Padmapukur Union Parishad Chairman discussed about river erosion, natural disasters, incapacity to tackle disasters, inadequate cyclone shelters in his area. He also mentioned that there are only 6 shelters for 34000 populations which is quite inadequate. He said, “We are deprived of the privileges our neighbor unions get.”Md. Abdur Rahim, Gabura Union Parishad Chairman emphasized on rebuilding and constructing stronger, sustainable embankments. Mr. Joseph Halder, Head of AIC in NGO forum for Public Health, said, “The community is always participating somehow, they always come up with solutions, but the solutions are based at higher level and decisions come from there. Thus the voices of the local people go unheard.”Professor Ainun Nishat concluded the workshop encouraged excavating and restoring the dead ponds to store rainwater. He quoted, “The local government representatives need to be more vocal and raise their union wise concerns.