Indo-Bangladesh team to resolve river problems

Kolkata, Sep 17 (UNI) In a bid to resolve river bank erosion, embankment and drinking water supply-related issues, an Indian team led by Union Minister of Water Resourses Saif-ud-din Soz along with his Bangladeshi counterpart will soon visit various sites in both the countries.

Speaking at a programme here yesterday, Mr Soz said his counterpart Hafiz-ud-din Ahmed and his team would jointly inspect various river sites in India and Bangladesh to assess the situation on the ground.

''There had been several meetings on the long pending river problems but no major step has been taken regarding this, '' he said.

Mr Soz said both countries share common cultural heritage and historical bonds and expressed concern over the problems of the poor farmers, who were continuously being affected by the existing river matters.

Both the Ministers jointly visited Tripura and inspected sites of the river Feni near Sabroom and the river Muhuri and Balonia, where the repair and strengthening of existing flood embankments was held up.

The delegation would be visiting Ichamati river today, which is facing silting problem and requires immediate dredging of the river bed.

A large part of land, about 225 sq kms with two lakh population, both in India and Bangladesh get affected every year during rainy season, that almost floods the entire area causing a lot of disaster.

However, the irony of the whole issue is that the problem had been persisting over decades but both the governments have been avoiding the matter saying there is a shortage of funds and budget.

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