As a water-rich region, south Asian countries must build consensus and coalition to benefit from the enormous natural resource, he said while speaking on 'Global Environmental Security After Rio+11: North South Divide or Unity' organised by Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) at Osmani Memorial Hall.

"We have to transform disputes into dialogue and dialogue into doing," Dr Kamal noted.

He said that there are powerful and self-complacent quarters among the individual state managers who put barriers to fulfilling pledges for common good.

Some decision-makers hold back the sustainable development of the state and of the region, as well, he said.

Dr Kamal, also president of Gono Forum, a political party, said though the largest number of countries committed themselves to the seminal concept of sustainable development at the Rio conference in 1992, very little has been done to that end to date. There have only been great lapses and deviations from the Rio declarations.

Former finance minister AMA Muhit said, "India and China must live up to their obligation that they do not cause immense harm to Bangladesh by arbitrarily draining water of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin."

Science, Information and Communication Technology Minister Abdul Moyeen Khan said the developed world is responsible for causing major environmental hazards, yet it is the poor countries like Bangladesh that bear the brunt. "We want to sustain our environment as we want to sustain our livelihood," the minister said.

Former UN under-secretary-general and visiting fellow of the London School of Economics Nitin Desai in his keynote speech said if the sea level rises by one metre due to global warming, 70 million people of Bangladesh will be displaced and 80 percent of its territory will go under water.

Desai said local management of environment and natural resources through credible local government institutions is a must for addressing rural poverty, which constitutes bulk of the society's impoverished section.