DHAKA: International Farakka Committee (IFC) on Saturday urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mutually settle water-sharing issues of joint rivers.

IFC came up with urge in a press statement issued on Saturday noon.

Welcoming the visit of the Prime Minister of India, the organization said it believes that the meeting between Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will ensure environmental flows of common rivers in the light of the 2000 Millennium Declaration of the UN and the spirit of the SAARC on the basis of mutual respect and regional cooperation.

“We hope that treaties with guarantee and arbitration clauses will be signed for sharing of the Teesta water ensuring the due share of Bangladesh in the same spirit of the Land Boundary Agreement,” the statement added.

IFC, the international water rights watch group, said that they believe that India will abandon the Tipaimukh project, new dams on the Ganges and the inter-basin water transfer as promised earlier by the Prime Minister of India.

It's also essential that all water-sharing arrangements between riparian countries include clauses ensuring continuous data sharing of water flows, the organization added. 

The statement also reads: “We believe countries of the Himalayan region - Bangladesh, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan - will collectively pursue the development and prosperity of the peoples through integrated management of Himalayan Rivers and face the threat of climate change.”

BDST: 1600 HRS, JUN 6, 2015
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