developing water resources in the eastern Himalayan region through integrated regional projects is the only way to ameliorate poverty in south Asian countries. This was emphasised by participants at a recent conference in Kathmandu on regional co-operation in harnessing rivers. Experts from Nepal, Bangladesh and India concluded that shelving water resource projects for environmental reasons or cost of delay leads to more poverty, environmental degradation and shortage of energy.

However, the participants agreed that integration of environmental and social issues with optimal water resource development proves that sustainable projects are the most economical in the long run. They also called for a regional agenda to evolve common grounds on environmental issues of national, global and regional significance to help formulate specific parameters on water resource development. Nepal has prepared an approach paper for sub-regional co-operation in south Asian countries which proposes a time-bound methodology for identification of feasible projects in various sectors.