Residents of Teesta basin rally in march for fair share of Teesta waters

Central and local BNP leaders take part in the demonstration

Thousands of people residing on the banks of Teesta River have held a mass procession demanding the fair distribution of its waters and implementation of a mega project involving the conservation and management of the section of the river in Bangladesh.

Demonstrators began marching from Teesta Bridge in Lalmonirhat Sadar at 10am, bound for Rangpur’s Kaunia on Tuesday morning.

They returned to Teesta Bridge from Kaunia after concluding a demonstration that lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. At the end of the march, the protesters got into the Teesta River and held up signs on boards around 12pm.

An organisation named Teesta Nadi Rokkha Andolan, or the Save the Teesta River Movement, called a 48-hour sit-in programme on Monday morning under the slogan “Wake up, let’s save Teesta”.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir launched the programme, which was observed simultaneously at 11 locations across five districts the river flows through.

Central and local BNP leaders and activists also took part in the demonstration.

Before the procession on Tuesday, Asadul Habib Dulu, organising secretary of BNP’s executive committee, said: “The Teesta River is our life. If this river can be saved, the farmers of the northern regions will live and the economy will survive.”

“We want a fair share of Teesta’s waters and the swift implementation of the mega project,” he added.

Bangladesh has been talking with India about the Teesta water-sharing treaty for a long time, but it has not yet come to fruition.

Residents of the river basin said the reduced flow of Teesta’s water severely threatened agriculture, biodiversity and the livelihoods of ordinary people in the northern region, particularly in the dry season.

Wahedul Islam, a farmer, said: “The Teesta River has turned my life upside down. Dulu has called on us to save the river. We are with him.”