Deliberations on agenda of building green and clean South Asia beg

Dhaka, May 22 (UNI) The SAARC countries here today began deliberations on the agenda of building a green and clean South Asia by jointly addressing the environmental problems -- from natural disaster to groundwater contamination and equitable sharing of water flows.

On the first day of three-day deliberations today, the SAARC Technical Committee on Environment and Forestry (STCEF) held their meeting discussing several points of agenda on environment and forestry to prepare a report for the seventh ministerial meeting to be held on May 24.

The minister-level meeting, which is expected to strike a deal, will be preceded with a meeting of senior officials tomorrow.

Bangladesh's Environment and Forest Minister Tariqul Islam MP, who inaugurated the meeting, hoped that the technical experts will move forward to consider the modalities for having a Regional Environment Treaty in furthering environmental cooperation among the SAARC member-states as envisaged in the 13th SAARC Summit.

The Minister said there is a vast scope for regional cooperation in various fields of environment, particularly, as in disaster management, coastal zone management, arsenic contamination of groundwater, water conservation, green South Asia and sharing trans-boundary flows of water.

''We had the directions from our leaders during the 13th SAARC Summit that we need to coordinate our activities in various areas of disaster management, such as early warning, exchange of information, training and sharing of experiences and best practices in emergency relief efforts,'' Mr Islam told the experts.

The technical committee meeting dealt with the environmental issues envisaged in the ''Dhaka Declaration'' of the 13th SAARC Summit.

Major points in the Dhaka declaration was the formulation of a complete outline for early-warning and disaster-management project and strengthening the SAARC Meteorological Research Center and SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre.

It also includes announcing the year 2007 as ''Green South Asia'' and discussion on formulating a regional environment treaty to enhance the environment-related cooperation among the SAARC countries.

Delegates from all the member-countries, including current chairperson of the technical committee Dasho Sangay Thinley from Bhutan, were present at the meeting.

UNI XC VJ VP1830