Sustainable Development of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basins

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin contains the largest number of the world's poor in any one region. The population is increasing steadily, and unless the current development trends are broken, poverty will become even more pervasive. The region is endowed with considerable natural resources that could be used to foster sustainable economic development. Water could be successfully used as the engine to promote economic development of the region, which has been hindered because the most populous part of the basin is shared by three countries: Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, who have in the past been unable to agree to an integrated development plan. In Sustainable Development of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basins, leading technocrats and intellectuals discuss how, through co-operation between the countries concerned and by taking a holistic development approach, the quality of life of the people of the basin could be improved significantly within a reasonable timeframe.

Asit K. Biswas is the president of the Third World Centre for Water Management and a member of the World Commission on Water A. T. M. Shamsul Huda is the secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources of the government of Bangladesh Ratneshwar Lal Kayastha is the joint secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources of the government of Nepal A. D. Mohile is the former chairman of the Brahmaputra Board, and the current chairman of the Central Water Commission of the government of India Somnath Mukherjee is the head of the Environment Division of WAPCOS, New Delhi, a public-sector consulting group Ainun Nishat is the country representative of IUCN in Bangladesh, and was earlier a professor of water resources engineering at the Bangladesh University of Science and Technology in Dhaka Iswer R. Onta was instrumental in establishing Eastconsult, which is Nepal's best-known consulting group in the area of water and irrigation R. B. Shah is the former chairman of the Central Water Commission of the government of India, and currently an adviser to Consulting Engineering Services of New Delhi Juha I. Uitto is a monitoring and evaluation specialist at the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and was formerly senior academic programme officer at the United Nations University Environment and Sustainable Development Programme B. G. Verghese is a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and a former editor of the Indian Express and the Hindusthan Times