Speakers at a roundtable on Saturday stressed the need for the removal of inconsistencies and ambiguities from the water act to ensure people’s right to water in the country. Mass hearing is required to make the law people friendly, bringing necessary amendments to it, they said.
Water Rights Forum organised the roundtable titled ‘Bangladesh Water Act 2013: People’s Right and the Proper Use of Water Resources’ at Jatiya Press Club in the city. ALRD chairperson Khushi Kabir presided over the programme.
People’s right to water was not recognised in the law and amendments were required to it for the people’s benefit, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) Syeda Rizawana Hasan said.
“There are lots of ambiguities in the law. Government should make amendments to the water act to give its full benefit to the people, taking people’s opinion through mass hearing,” she said.
Regarding the vagueness, Advocate Abu Raihan Muhammad Khalid, a Supreme Court lawyer, said, in other countries government provides ‘explanation note’ with every new law to settle ambiguities but in Bangladesh such indications are not available.
The government should set a target to achieve about the reserve of ground water, he said. “Underground water table has gone below danger level in some places in the country. But there was no guideline in the law regarding its protection,” Khalid said.
-With The Independent input
