Besides the speakers mentioned in the Delhi meeting, the other panelists included Dr Kamil Khan Mumtaz (Environmentalist, Lahore); Dr Noman Ahmed (Faculty member, Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, Karachi); Dr Hammad Naqi Khan (WWF, Pakistan); Dr S.N. Upadhyay (Hon. Executive Director, Sankat Mochan Foundation, Varanasi); Mr. Biplab Ketan Paul (Lokvikas, Ahmedabad) and myself from Development Alternatives.

The public meetings at Lahore and Islamabad were organised by USIS, whereas the Varanasi meeting was co-organised by Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF), a leading NGO which has been struggling for some years to protect the River Ganges through the Swatcha Ganga project.

As we travelled along these cities, we discussed and shared our hopes, despair, success stories and tried to explore opportunities for cooperation. To all of us, it became increasingly clearer that in the South Asian region, the environmental problems we faced were quite similar as we shared almost similar geo-physical conditions and same was the case with our solutions.

Fighting such a grim situation, we have national and international NGOs such as SMF, Lok Vikas, IUCN, WWF, Development Alternatives and PIEDAR which are continuously experimenting with new initiatives and partnerships. Though to some extent regional cooperation is taking place while representing the region in the international fora, it is still insignificant as has been correctly pointed out by Dr Adil Nazam, the moderator of the Islamabad meeting. A greater level of cooperation is recommended in other areas too, so that the SAARC nations can emerge as sustainable nations.

Considering the common basin characters and the prevailing landlock systems in the region, Dr Basu has pointed out several joint studies that need to be initiated such as regional terrain appreciation, water resource planning and management, geo-morphology and similar other geo-environmental studies.

Information sharing is identified as the crucial factor for promoting regional cooperation. Considering the richness of information we have, and the potential contacts we have made during these seminars, many of us have promised to begin our co-operative efforts through exchange of information and success stories alongwith sharing of expertise. Greater responsibility is vested with the media to play a major role to bring in a positive change in our relations.

General lack of trust, suspicion and insufficient government level cooperation have been recognised by Dr Noman Ahmed as major obstacles in regional cooperation. Compounding these, lack of regional vision and local level action; absence of professional level linkages and cross-country dialogue; general ignorance of people and lack of basic information about the region in our school curricula; travel restrictions etc. are some of the identified obstacles in regional cooperation.

The biggest challenge, we realised, is to overcome these obstacles through concerted efforts. We, the seminar panelists, hope to contribute significantly to such efforts in the times to come.