DHAKA: The contentious issue of harnessing water in South Asia overshadowed a vital SAARC ministerial meeting, here, on the condition of the region’s women. As the delegates to the two-day (July 2930) SAARC ministerial meeting on women were busy mapping out common position on the problems of South Asian women, ahead of the World Conference on Women in Beijing, the visiting Nepalese Minister for Finance and Bangladesh leaders discussed the waters issue at length.
The meeting of Nepal Bangladesh Joint Economic Commission (SEC), which coincided with the SAARC meeting, exchanged views on the waters issue with the Prime Minister, Ms. Khaleda Zia, and some other ministers. Mrs. Zia underlined the need for regional cooperation to ensure proper utilization and hamessing of water resources for the benefit of the region’s people.
earlier, the Kathmandu, last week, the Nepalese Prime Minister, Manmohan Adhikari, had told a group of visiting Bangladeshi students and teachers that the solution to the water problem of Bangladesh lay “within the folds of the Himalayas” from where many a river flowed to the region.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 18, 1995
