Dhaka for regional water plan..............

Bangladesh faces a sever water crisis by 2025 and will press for a regional policy to solve management issues, a minister said Sunday.

"We are facing a water crisis because of poor water management as there is plenty of water during the rainy season," local government state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak told a seminar on 'Water from cross-border rivers into Bangladesh'.

"The government will take steps in formulating a regional water policy and management together with India, Nepal and Bhutan," he said.

"In terms of underground water Bangladesh will face severe crisis by 2025 as we are rapidly depleting underground sources," Nanak said at the seminar, organised by the NGO Forum to mark World Water Day.

"Forty to fifty percent of tube wells run dry during the summer."

He said steps were being taken to construct the Ganges Barrage.

Nanak said the previous BNP-led government made no move to implement the Ganges water sharing agreement that the past Awami League government signed in 1996 with India, resulting in reduced water flow into the country's rivers.

He said the present government would take all necessary steps to ensure equitable water flow from all common rivers between the two countries, including the Ganges, through dialogue with India.

The seminar, which also heard from NGO Forum's executive director SMA Rashid, was chaired by BUET professor Mujibur Rahman.

A message from UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon on World Water Day urged all to maintain equal rights to water through mutual accord.

According to the UN, 40 percent of the world's populations live in estuary areas of 263 rivers around the globe.

There are 300 international agreements regarding common rivers throughout the world.