NEW DELHI, March 30 (UPI) -- India's plan to link more than 30 rivers and divert waters to parched areas to tackle flood and drought cycles is worrying neighboring countries, officials say.

The multibillion-dollar project, announced by the Indian government in 2002, has remained just a proposal on paper, but a supreme court ruling said the delay has resulted in cost increases and has appointed a committee to plan and implement the project in a "time-bound manner," the BBC reported Friday.


The proposed project's main goal is to take water from areas where authorities believe it is abundant and divert it to areas where there is less water available for irrigation, power and human consumption.

Neighboring countries have condemned the plan, with Bangladesh saying it would be hardest-hit because it is a downstream country to two major rivers that flow from India.

"We can never agree to it," Ramesh Chandra Sen, the Bangladeshi water resources minister, told the BBC.

The Ganges and the Bramhaputra, which flow down through Bangladesh, are among the rivers India has said it would divert to its western and southern regions.

"Our agriculture, economy and our lives depend on these rivers, and we cannot imagine their waters being diverted," Sen said.

South Asia is considered a likely flashpoint over water resources in the future, and a recent assessment by the U.S. intelligence agencies said the region will be one of the areas in the world where "water would be used as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism" by 2022.