The first symposia in 1999 studied the Bengal Basin as an ecological system governed by Bangladesh and the State of West Bengal in India. The goal is primarily to develop cost effective and workable solutions which can really have a positive impact, and to promote the redirection of some of the environmental management resources in western countries to those parts of the world where the impacts would be much more significant. The environmental and public health problems found in the Bengal Basin are the most challenging anywhere. In the present and future global economy, the activities in one part of the world will impact lives in other parts of the world. We are part of a global ecology.
Environmental isolationism is no more tenable in the long term than economic isolationism.
Threats to public health know no boundaries, and problems do not go away when we ignore them. The problems in the Bengal Basin impact all of us. Some have considered the groundwater and surface water pollution of the Bengal Basin as the most serious and the worst of anywhere. It is the home for 300 million people, a population which continues to increase. Due to the climate and the watershed, the pollution is not confined but is continually being drained into the Bay of Bengal.