Bangladesh-India Teesta river water-sharing takes a new turn
Bangladesh and India have decided to update data of the Teesta River along with seven others before sharing water in a new move.
The development emerged after the water secretary-level talks in Dhaka on Thursday, first such meeting after eight years.
Kabir Bin Anwar, the water resources secretary, led the Bangladesh team while Upendra Prasad Singh, the secretary for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, headed the Indian delegation.
The meeting also scrapped the earlier joint study group for proposed Ganges Barrage of Bangladesh and formed a four-member committee – two from each side – that will decide the composition of a larger committee and terms of reference (TOR) by Sept 30 this year.
The relations between India and Bangladesh are now said to be at their best, despite challenges in water-sharing issues. Both countries have 54 common rivers with only one, Ganges water, being shared through an agreement since 1996.
File Photo: The Teesta River in Bangladesh's Nilphamari district.
Since then, India has been maintaining that it will ink the deal once it gets approval from the state government.
Now both Bangladesh and India in a joint briefing after the secretary-level meeting said they will update data before finalising the deal.
The other rivers they have discussed were Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Feni, Gumti, Dharla, and Dudhkumar.
“We have made reasonably good progress on those eight rivers. We are about to come to a conclusion because there are certain issues on those rivers also,” Singh said.
“For example, Feni River is also important for us, for Tripura state. But we don’t have reliable data.
“Other six rivers will be discussed. We also have data but data is not updated. There are certain inconsistencies in those data and we shared data.
“So we have decided that we will work on a war-footing basis.
“In most of the cases we have fixed a two-month time. By September 30 we will update data and in extreme cases, we will remove the inconsistencies. Even if there are data gap, inconsistencies, notwithstanding those, we can enter into an interim agreement so that we can have more data.
“We can have an agreement that can be valid for 15 years and then in the meantime we can collect more data to make it more robust and more reliable, and it can later be revised based on more robust data,” Secretary Singh said.
“We don’t have any major problem as far as India and Bangladesh are concerned in a sense that… Okay… there are as many as 54 rivers and on river Ganges we already have 1996 agreement. That agreement has worked very satisfactorily in spite of the fact that there are challenges the way hydrology changes.”
The Bangladesh secretary termed the meeting a “new beginning of the two new governments that came with huge mandate”.
“We are working on a framework agreement on those rivers,” Kabir said.
It is difficult to say now whether there would be separate deals on each river, according to the secretary. “Every river is different. We have started work,” he said.
Both the secretaries said it is “difficult” to say at this stage whether the Teesta water-sharing deal could be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s proposed visit to New Delhi in October.
The Indian secretary said they are trying to “expedite” the process of river-sharing issues.
“But it’s difficult to say whether it will be singed during the prime minister’s visit. The visit is expected in October, but dates are not finalised.”
Hasina, earlier in April 2017 after her India visit, criticised the water resources ministry’s proposal for the Ganges barrage on Pangsha River, saying it will be ‘suicidal’ if constructed.
“The design by our water resources ministry is completely flawed. It should not be implemented. It will be suicidal, like Teesta barrage was,” she had then said.
“I said during the Ganges water-sharing treaty that the barrage will be constructed together so that everyone can use it. This has to be done jointly with India and India will fund it.”
The Indian secretary said India has no issue with the barrage but “any intervention you made on river has different kinds of implications".
“Two things – how to maximise the benefits for both the countries, major benefit will go to Bangladesh, of course, whether we can also have benefits.
“We also like to see that there is no minimum adverse impact. We have Farakka Barrage and because of (it) we have siltation in Bihar,” he said.
“Earlier there was a joint study group. We are expanding the scope. We will like to change the composition and scope of the work. We would like to enlarge the TOR,” Upendra Singh said, while announcing the new four-member committee.
He said in the larger committee there will be members drawn from different sectors including engineers, hydrologists, and environmentalists.
Bangladesh secretary Kabir said the TOR and composition will be decided by September 30 and then they will decide on the date of the study.
He said there have been studies related to Ganges barrage long time ago. “Now we have decided to have a joint study. To make it a good start, we have formed a committee that will decide who will do what.”
“Its (four-member committee) time is fixed. So there is no scope of lingering (things),” he said when asked.
“The design and construction issue is not coming right now. We will do the study now.”
The Indian secretary, however, spoke of the water scarcity facing India.
“Today water in India is the topmost agenda for the government. The kind of problems you have today are perhaps not acute as India’s.
“We have just 4 percent of the global water resources. But we have 18 percent of world population. That’s why per capita availability of water in India which used to be more than 5,000 cubic metre per person per year has come down to about 1,400. Impact of climate change is also bothering both India and Bangladesh,” Upendra Singh said.
The Bangladesh secretary said India has assured them of not doing anything without consultation on the river linking projects.
