State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque has urged the international community to enhance their partnership on water management in realising Sustainable Development Goal 6 and focus more on water diplomacy in preventing conflict and crisis.
Water management cooperation extends crucial support to all sustainable development goals – from addressing water scarcity, and building sound economies for global peace and security – he added.
Knowledge sharing and technical cooperation are also critical elements for sustainable water management, Zaheed said while speaking at the Interactive Dialogue-4 of the UN Water Conference held at the United Nations Headquarters Friday.
The state minister said Bangladesh has 57 transboundary rivers with its neighbouring countries. "We have been working on water cooperation with the co-riparian countries to manage and share the waters of common rivers."
The interactive dialogue was co-chaired by Serigne Mbaye Thiam, minister of water and sanitation of Senegal and Christian Frutiger, state secretary at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation.
Zaheed paid an official visit to New York to attend the 2023 UN Water Conference.
The conference was held from March 22-24 at the UN Headquarters.