AIT Prominent Alumni Lecture Series returns on 19 October

AIT is proud to announce that Lecture No. 4 of its ongoing AIT Prominent Alumni Lecture Series, which is jointly organized by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the AIT Alumni Association (AITAA), will be held on Friday, 19 October 2007, at the Milton E. Bender Jr. Auditorium.

Our prominent alumnus for this auspicious event is Mr. Tauhidul Anwar Khan (WRE'80), Member (Hons.) of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, and Former Director General of the Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO), Bangladesh. Mr. Khan is also the recipient of the AIT Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award 2005 for the public sector.

AIT is honored to have Mr. Khan deliver a lecture on "Collaborative management of the waters of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers can change the fate of millions in South Asia".

 

 

 

"Collaborative management of the waters of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers can change the fate of millions in South Asia"

Anawar Khan

 

Speaker: Mr. Tauhidul Anwar Khan (WRE’80)

Member (Hons.), Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, and Former Director General of the Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO), Bangladesh

Date: Friday, 19 October 2007, 10:00 a.m.

Location: Milton E. Bender Jr. Auditorium, Asian Institute of Technology

The lecture series is designed to provide recognition to AIT alumni who have distinguished themselves and their alma mater through lifetime achievement and professional accomplishments. It also serves as a platform through which the Institute can partner with the alumni in activities that would be of great interest and benefit to the members of the AIT community, particularly the student body. This initiative will provide the students excellent and inspiring role models to emulate in the future. The lecture series also serves as an opportune occasion to acknowledge and appreciate the continued contributions of the AIT alumni, which is an important and much respected part of the AIT family, for their role in upholding a strong, positive image of AIT in the region and beyond.

For more information, please contact the Alumni Relations Unit of the External Relations & Communications Office, e-mail to: aru@ait.ac.th or telephone at Ext. 6316 / 5010.

 
About the Speaker

Mr. Tauhidul Anwar Khan is a member of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission in the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh, and is working in an advisory capacity.

He has more than twenty-five years of experience in international negotiations on sharing and management of trans-boundary river waters. He has been a lead negotiator in water-related negotiations with India and Nepal. He was also the Bangladesh Coordinator in China-Bangladesh exchange and study of flood-related data and information of the Brahmaputra, at Government level.
Mr. Tauhidul Anwar Khan also worked as the Director General of Water Resources Planning Organization of Bangladesh. He was involved in drawing up the National Water Policy for the country as well as outlining the National Water Management Plan for Bangladesh. Born in 1946, Mr. Khan is a graduate in Civil Engineering (1969) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He obtained a Diploma in Water Resources Engineering from AIT, Bangkok, in 1980.
He is closely associated with various water-related international organizations such as the Global Water Partnership, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage. He has a number of publications both at home and abroad, to his credit.
 
About the Lecture

The rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra and their tributaries and distributaries crisscross vast areas in the northeastern parts of South Asia, comprising parts of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The total basin area of these two international rivers amounts to about 1.7 million square kilometers, where more than 500 million people live. The area is richly endowed with natural resources and once flourished as a world center of civilization. The flows of these two rivers are highly seasonal and heavily influenced by the monsoon rainfall which contributes 80% of the total annual rainfall to the region. The area, therefore, faces two major hazards: floods during the monsoon; and scarcity of water during the dry season. These perennial problems of overabundance and scarcity of water frustrate the overall developmental efforts by the people.

The basin area of these two rivers constitutes only about 0.12% of world's total land mass, yet it has 10% of the total world population and 40% of the total number of poor residing in the developing world. A large number of people of the area live below the poverty line. The land-man ratio is steadily declining while agricultural yields are well below their potential and unable to generate the income, employment and surpluses needed to stimulate rapid industrialization. As the bulk of energy requirements are still met by fuel wood in the rural areas, there is massive deforestation in certain parts of the region. But this should not have been the case in view of the region's rich endowments. In fact, the fate of the entire region could have been changed dramatically through meaningful and effective cooperation amongst all the co-basin countries of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The integrated development of the water resources of these two rivers however remained neglected. There has been inadequate appreciation of the fact that every year lost meant the loss of a productive multiplier through the creation of wealth and employment that would otherwise have been at work. Mutual cooperation in the water sector by the co-basin countries has been impeded by mistrust, fear, misperception and myth.
Conversely, cooperation amongst the four countries-India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the management of the waters of these two rivers could have taken the region far ahead by now. A portion of the monsoon floods of the two rivers which cause widespread damage almost every year could be conserved in upstream areas at appropriate storage sites to mitigate the flood intensities downstream. This is turn, would have enabled augmentation of the dry season flows of these two rivers to satisfy the water needs in that season by all concerned. In addition, generation of large amounts of hydropower from the storage dams could have eased the energy crisis in the basin areas and created more job opportunities by facilitating rapid industrialization. The tremendous pressure on fuel wood in the area would also have been reduced and forest resources could have been saved. All these, however, did not occur. In the interest of millions of people living in this vast area, the political and conceptual problems need to be more purposefully addressed, especially as the underlying commonality of interests in the waters of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra is overwhelming.

Water is so essential to every aspect of life, from health to recreation, that efficient cooperative management and protection of water can enrich the lives of vast populations. Its scarcity, whether due to natural or man-made circumstances, can also be the source of regional tension and instability. As water is a cardinal resource for stability and prosperity, it should be used as a means for regional integration, not division.