India says any apprehension in the minds of neighbouring countries over proposed linkages of trans-border rivers are “misplaced”, as the project has been backburnered.
The river-linking work would start only after memorandums of understanding and development project reports are prepared, Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.
“There is nothing formalised about the interlinking of rivers. Our neighbours have nothing to apprehend. Any apprehensions in their minds are misplaced. I will try to allay their fears….The proposed linkages are on the backburner,” he said in his first official comments since the Indian Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to the ambitious project in February this year.
Pointing out that interlinking of rivers was “a long-drawn process”, the Indian minister said though the project was in the national interest, many issues related to the environment, forests and the like had to be sorted out first.
The remarks come in the wake of growing concern in Bangladesh over the river project, particularly the proposed link between the Brahmaputra and the Ganges and possible adverse effects on the flow of the Brahmaputra into the lower-riparian country.
The minister said that of the 30 proposed inter-linking projects, only five were under process and these too were in peninsular India and not in international rivers, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Bansal’s comments, however, brought little relief to Dhaka as Bangladesh government officials and river experts allege the Indian project is not transparent at all.
A recent media report about a survey on the Brahmaputra as part of the Indian project gave the lower-riparian country real cause for concern.
If India withdrew any water from the Brahmaputra, it would spell disaster for Bangladesh, said river expert Ainun Nishat. “We are yet in the dark about what they [Indian authorities] are doing.”
India should adopt a basin-wise approach to international river management, allowing participation of the countries in the basin of that river, he said.
The joint communiqué signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s New Delhi visit in 2010 also mentions basin-wise management of cross-border rivers.
Contacted, a top official of the water resources ministry yesterday said although the Indian media reported that the country had completed studies on some portions of the project like linking the Ganges water with the Indian portion of the Sundarbans and had recently started a survey on the Brahmaputra, Dhaka was yet to be officially apprised of any of these developments.
At the press conference yesterday, referring to the river link programme mooted by the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government, Pawan Kumar Bansal said five priority areas had been earmarked by then minister Suresh Prabhu. Though “good work” was done at the time, the whole thing was later wound down.
He also announced that the Indian government had decided to hold an International Water Week annually from this year. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will today inaugurate the programme for this year.
