The Indian government has already conducted as many as eight feasibility studies on the river linking, the largest transboundary and inter-basin water control project ever, without even consulting the neighbours, the speakers said at the seminar.

They described the project as a potentially dangerous threat to the entire population of the subcontinent.

Bangladesh Peoples' Initiative against River Linking Project (BPIRL), a coalition of environmentalists and professionals, organised the two-day long consultations. Representatives from India, Nepal, Pakistan attended the meeting arranged to focus on the implications of proposed river linking by India.

Riaz Rahman, adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was the chief guest at the inaugural session.

The experts at the seminar said the Indian government has long been keeping the neighbours in dark about the project. They said the proposed project envisages links at 31 points in Ganges and Brahmaputra basins. They feared the project by withdrawing water to some drought prone states of India would eventually change the morphology of the river system in the subcontinent.

"The river linking project is still in the conceptual phase and the Indians didn't inform us anything officially of it," said Reaz Rahman.

Sudhirendar Sharma, executive director of the Ecological Foundation, Delhi said the common perception of people is that the government should and must supply water. And the power structure, out of arrogance and ignorance, nurture the perception despite the fact that similar projcets have earlier failed to meet people's expectation.

He said with the new political party in power many expected the project would be shelved but that has not happened.

Dipak Gyawali, former water resources minister of Nepal, in his speech assured that Nepal would support Bangladesh in opposition to the Indian river linking project as it directly concerns the international rivers.

Syed Shahid Husain, former minister of water and power of Pakistan said the river-linking project of India in violation of the concerns of the neigbours would damage the entire ecosystem of the subcontinent.

Enayetullah Khan, editor of the daily New Age chaired the session. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, director (programme) of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) delivered the welcome speech while Farhad Mazher, managing director of Ubinig, the keynote on BPIRL position.