Mohammad Faridur Rahaman, Senior Correspondent, Dhaka, Bangladesh

What water-themed work have you been working on (reporting, editing research)?

Currently I’m working on regional river issues; basin based water sharing, river ecosystem, overflow and short-flow of water etc. I’m also working on the political disputes & conflicts between south Asian countries on water sharing. I’m following the water-diplomacy between south Asian countries, especially Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Scarcity of pure drinking water in my country is my another working area. As you might know, people are struggling with saline water in our costal areas.

What areas of your work in water have generated the most significant public response?

I’ve filed few stories on water scarcity in our country due to salinity and I believe those touched our audience! I filed few reports on water sharing disputes and the diplomacy, were equally accepted by the audiences.

What barriers are there to reporting on environment and sustainable development issues in your region (eg. lack of public interest, censorship, pressure from advertisers etc)?

It’s tough to get our environment stories published or broadcast our reports on television or radio due to the pressure from advertisers; It’s quite common phenomenon like other countries. But we have other reasons too! Lack of interest of our news managers is one of them! They used to consider, environment reporters endorsing NGO activities, rather doing their own job, journalism! News managers thought, most of the environment reporter wasting their time as they should look for the political ‘Scoop’ or ‘Breaking News’!

What is tough to sell to editors in water/sustainable development/environment? Why do you think this is the case? Please detail with specific examples from your experience

To manage editors or convince them to sell our environment stories is not easy here in my country. It’s always hard, as it was in early. I think they must be concern of the business of the media owner and that’s a part of their managerial job! Well, as a senior correspondent of our media house, I’m not facing problem to get broadcast my stories. But, treatment of my stories down-played, I can assure you.

What do you feel has been successful and unsuccessful in your work in this area? Please detail with specific examples from your experience.

Success! What is it in journalism? As a journalist I’m still looking for my best report. I did couple of stories on water-diplomacy between south Asian countries, but it’s not quite enough. I’m still trying to find out the reasons behind the story, why south Asian countries couldn’t come to a decision and share their water as per international laws?

Please present your proposals for communications and media projects. This is your chance to pitch the UN.

I’m proposing UN to research on the south Asian rivers, their water sharing method, conflicts, and international river laws.
Also proposing an in-depth research on climate refuges in Bangladesh, whether it’s real or not? As we have heard due to salinity and lack of fresh water people are migrating from southern Bangladesh to Central or even crossing the border!