ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Access to safe drinking water should be declared a human right.

This was asserted by Dr Ainun Nishat, an authority on water resources and IUCN country representative in Bangladesh, while speaking at a seminar on ‘shifting focus from water development to water management’ held here on Tuesday.

The informal talk was organized by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Dr Nishat, who presided over the seminar, has been actively involved with various activities in the water and water-related initiatives in Bangladesh and around the world.

Insisting on the importance of safe drinking water at an affordable price, he said water engineers never thought of drinking water supply seriously in their agendas but now there was a change and a shift in global thinking.

Before beginning to execute the proposed project, engineering, irrigation, water and environment assessment, Dr Nishat said professionals need to work in unison as an integrated whole, each an expert in his or her own field, but continuously work with the communities at the grassroots level to develop ownership and explain carefully to them the need for that project.

Answering questions from the participants, Dr Nishat said that narrow-minded nationalistic politics and policies of governments and nations led to conflict.

He said they forget that the river’s environmental and ecological considerations formed a silent, but important, third partner in any national or international negotiation related to water.

About the Indus Water Treaty of 1962 between India and Pakistan, he said it was easy to criticize all water related policies and documents in the light of hindsight, but it might have been the only possible solution available to negotiators at the time.

He said they need to be revisited and revised in the light of new global knowledge required by nations over the decades.

Dr Nishat discussed various issues in his presentation. He defined Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) as “a process which promoted the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital eco-systems”.

He said activities in water sector in the South Asian region were mostly centralized and had traditionally focused on irrigation. —Jamal Shahid