Khurshid said this Wednesday at the 15th meeting of the Ganga Flood Control Board -- an apex body headed by the minister that is responsible for preparing and executing development plans of 23 river systems of the Ganga basin.

The board meeting was held after 11 years.

Water resources ministers from the basin states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and representatives from Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttrakhand and Delhi participated in the day-long meeting.

Responding to various issues raised by the participants, Khurshid assured Bihar and Uttar Pradesh that he would "soon visit Nepal to take up the issue of floods" orginating from there, an official statement said here.

Khurshid will meet his Nepalese counterpart and other senior functionaries of the government to seek an early resolution of the issue.

The minister said all possible assistance will be provided to Bihar in tackling the menace of recurring floods.

He also assured Uttar Pradesh of looking into its complaint regarding slow release of funds for its flood control schemes and suggested a joint meeting of the concerned officers from the state government and his ministry to sort out the matter.

Khurshid impressed upon the participants to look into the issue of declaring water as a national asset and in this context also referred to the recent observations of the Supreme Court so that this "utmost important resource can be managed in a better, equitable, efficient and quicker way".

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