"We have repeatedly requested India to resolve the crisis politically, but they did not respond accordingly," he said at a roundtable at the National Press Club in the city.

The roundtable on 'The role of PIC in constructing embankments in Sunamganj haor area : present situation', was organised jointly by Actionaid Bangladesh and weekly Saptahik 2000.

The state minister said Dhaka is ready to hold talks with India anytime on the issue of sharing the water of the common rivers.

He said henceforth instead of floating tenders, the government will develop the haors through Project Implementation Committees (PICs).

A survey is being conducted through Water Development Board (WDB), to design a master plan to make the best use of the aquatic resources in the haors, he added.

"As people of the area have appreciated the PIC system which was introduced this year on test basis, we will implement it in the development of other haors," Goutam added.

AL leader Suranjit Sengupta, who hails from Sunamganj, laid stress on the dredging of the rivers Kushiara and Surma, and said the boro cultivation might not be possible if the rivers are not dredged.

"Too many unplanned embankments without any sociological and hydrological survey will bring no good either to boro or to fish production in the area," he added.

Suranjit underscored the need for activating the Haor Development Board and agreement with India on the sharing of the waters of 54 common rivers.

Nirmal Bhattacharya of the Committee to Protect the Haors, suggested proper monitoring system in the construction process.

The embankments in Sunamganj haor area were constructed through the PIC following widespread irregularities, corruption and politicisation in the tender process.

The PIC is comprised of local leaders, stakeholders and administration that implement and monitor the embankment construction.

"The locals can complain and demand accountability to the PIC which is not possible in the case of the contractors who are usually politically influential," said Shihab Uddin Ahamad of Actionaid.

Due to timely construction of the embankments. the haor area yielded a bumper boro crops this year despite flash floods, said the locals, government and NGO officials working in the area.

According to Department of Agricultural Extension, the district incurred a loss of about Tk 349 crore in 2004, Tk 87 crore in 2003 and Tk 70 crore in 2002 due to flash floods.

According to WDB, there are 411 haors covering 8,000 square kilometers of area in the country.

Country Director of Actionaid Bangladesh Nasrin Huq presided over the roundtable, while Executive Editor of Saptahik 2000 Golam Mortuza read out the keynote paper.

WDB DG Sharif Rafiqul Islam, Haor Development Board DG Enamul Haque, Joint Secretary Habibullah Mojumder of water resources ministry, Khuku Chakraborti of Actionaid, environmentalists Abu Naser Khan, and Syed Shafiq Ahmed also took part in the roundtable.