Dialogue on mainstreaming river basin planning

Article and Report Courtesy : Organisers, Dialogue on Mainstreaming River Basin Planning

We would like to reiterate through the report, that River Basin Planning as a concept has the potential of resolving most of the issues that affect water resource management at National and International levels in a proactive, dialogue mode. It is with this belief that we took up River Basin Planning as a constructive, non-contentious focus of our network. We must add that this agenda was set up by the five convenors based on their own experiences, and has not been due to any influence by any National or International body.

We realize that much more could have been done during the River Basin Planning Dialogue. We were however limited by time, money and the participatory decision making processes that we adopted. We hope that with your support and motivation, we will be able to catalyze the process further. 

We intend to bring out a document on Approach to RBP as a preliminary advocacy document based on the rich discussions and points that emerged at the workshop, the perspective briefs and the power point presentations.

A suggestion which emerged from the last session of the Dialogue was to form a regional civil society co-operation network within the SAARC. We would like to know if some of you would wish to engage in such efforts, and contribute in designing the various aspects of forming a constructive network. We envision the network to be informal, non-hierarchic, and based on the principles of consensus building on common, generic problems emerging in South Asian river basins. We would take the next steps in this direction after hearing your feedback on this idea.