Bangladesh and India discussed “issues related to water-sharing treaties” of various rivers, including Teesta and Ganges.
The two countries discussed the water issues at the much waited 38th ministerial level Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting held in the capital of New Delhi on Thursday after 12 years.
The last 37th JRC Ministerial-level Meeting took place in New Delhi in March 2010, while the 38th meeting was scheduled to be held in Dhaka in 2011.
The Ministerial level meeting was held ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India from September 6 to 8 to take final preparation for signing two deals there during the visit.
Bangladesh’s State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque led the 17-member delegation at the JRC meeting while India’s Jal Shakti (Water Resources) Minister Gajendra Singh Shakhawat led the Indian side.
Earlier at the seventh round of the Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting held in New Delhi this year, Bangladesh and India agreed to work closely together to further deepen and strengthen cooperation in the areas of common rivers and water resources management.
However, water sharing agreements of two rivers — the Teesta and Feni — were finalised in 2011, but no agreement was signed at that time.
“A fresh deal on ‘Kushiyara River water’ is almost at a final stage, Delhi is likely to lift its objection to Bangladesh’s canal project called ‘Rahimpur Canal’ to withdraw water from the Kushiyara River flowing down the northeastern Barak Valley to cultivate 5,000 acres of land in Sylhet in exchange for withdrawal of 1.82 cusec of water per second from Bangladesh’s Feni River for Tripura State,” senior officials of the Ministry of Water Resources said.
According to them a renewed deal of the Ganges water sharing is also on the cards, as Ganges water treaty is expiring in 2026 and some kind of preparations are required to renew the deal.
According to multiple sources,
Bangladesh’s long-demanding Teesta water deal will not be in the main focus, due to Indian domestic political circumstances, it would be near-impossible for Delhi to discuss right now.
“We have 11 crucial issues that we want to discuss at the JRC meeting, the secretary level meeting begins on Tuesday in Delhi after the lapse of 12 years with few major problems left unresolved,” Foreign Ministry official said.
The three day-long ministerial level talks, which ended on Thursday, in a view to resolve some crucial issues of water-related disputes between the two South Asian neighbours.
The JRC was jointly formed by India and Bangladesh to resolve conflicts arising from the sharing of water of trans-boundary rivers.
The JRC meeting was deferred several times for updating data on six common rivers the Muhuri, Monu, Dharla, Khowai, Gumti and Dudhkumar- which was last updated 34 years ago, the Foreign Ministry said.
“Issues like construction of river embankment to prevent erosion, two-km stretch of the un-demarcated Mahurirchar land and other unresolved matters were scheduled to discuss the meeting,” a senior official of JRC said.
“Bangladesh and India also agreed to exchange data and prepare the frameworks for interim water-sharing agreements of six more trans-boundary rivers – Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, and Dudhkumar,” the official said.
Bangladesh and India have 54 common rivers. However, the two countries have only one relevant treaty signed in 1996 which oversees the sharing of water of the Ganges River.
Sources said it has become difficult to protect river banks from erosion along the border in Rajshahi, Chapainwabganj, Rangpur, Kurigram and Sylhet districts. The rivers constituting the border often change their course due to erosion inside Bangladesh territory, creating problems for the people living along the frontiers.
About 3,000 acres in Majorgaon, Amolshid, Lakshmibazar, Sultanpur, Senapatirchak and Manikpur in Zakiganj upazila are now part of the Indian state of Assam due to erosion by the Kushiyara, while 250 acres in Ballah, Uttarkul, Munshibazar, Rosulpur and Dighli on the banks of the Surma River in Sylhet region have also been washed away due to erosion on the Bangladesh side.
However, Bangladesh and India have agreed to sign a framework agreement for sharing of the waters of six common rivers Manu, Muhuri, Gomti, Dharla, Dudhkumar and Khowai at the recent technical committee meeting of Joint River Commission (JRC).
As per the Mujib-Indira Treaty of 1974, the midstream of the rivers forms the border between the two countries. But as the rivers have shifted their courses inside Bangladesh territory, Bangladeshis are being deprived of their cultivable land, which has fallen on the Indian side following erosion, according to sources in the Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB).
