Indo-Bangla JRC is functioning since 1972 with a view to maintain liaison in order to ensure the most effective joint effort to maximize the benefits from common river systems. The Commission is headed by Water Resources Ministers of both the countries.  The Delhi meeting took place after a gap of five years.

India presented a draft Statement on Principles of Sharing of Teesta Waters during dry season. Bangladesh too had come up with its views. After the two-day deliberations, Secretaries of Water Resources were mandated to examine these drafts ‘to facilitate expeditious conclusion of an interim agreement on Teesta.

This was a significant movement forward.

Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen has described the exchange of drafts as a step forward and announced both sides decided on how to go about cooperating on the issue. It is expected now that the interim accord could be reached soon.

To give Bangladesh more lead time for advance warning of floods, New Delhi, as a special gesture, agreed to provide flood data to enhance the lead time to more than 57 hours. Dhaka thanked India.

At the JRC meet both sides were satisfied at the bank protection and embankments repair works being undertaken by mutual agreement at 66 sites. And agreed to add 34 more sites – 12 in Indian and 22 in Bangladesh. They also expressed satisfaction at the on-going dredging activities on the Ichhamati River. Bangladesh agreed to India withdrawing 1.82 cusec of water from Feni River for drinking water supply schemes.

Contrary to speculations in certain quarters, the bilateral discussions were comprehensive in nature and included issues relating to drinking water and minor lift irrigation schemes on rivers Feni and Muhuri, 1996 Ganga Waters Treaty, bank protection and embankment repair works, cooperation in flood forecasting, flood management and warning arrangements besides issues related to dredging of Ichhamati river, Tipaimukh Dam Project and India’s river-link plan.

On the Tipaimukh, Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal reiterated that India would not take steps that would adversely impact on Bangladesh.

Critics in Bangladesh argue that Tipaimukh will be an environmental disaster. Apprehensions include increased salinity from the sea, greater erosion, less silt deposition, reduced fish runs, summer flooding through augmented lean season releases, possible danger from any opening of the flood gates in case of heavy rains, and dam safety concerns from high seismicity. There is also a worry over a water sharing agreement.  Since no water is proposed to be abstracted, no issue of water sharing arises.

The Tipaimukh dam, 210 kms from the Bangladesh border, will only regulate half the river’s 25,000 sq km catchment. The lower catchment in India is watered by a number of tributary streams that will remain unregulated and, incidentally, provide ample fish runs. The dam will reduce the June to October flood flows from an average of 2021 to 1648 cu m per second or by 20 per cent while average summer flows passing through the turbines will rise from 282 cumecs to 537 cumecs or almost double. Thus the dam will moderate floods and aid fisheries, navigation, and salinity control during the lean season.

A new chapter in the Indo-Bangladesh relations opened up with signing of a Treaty by the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh in 1996 on the sharing of Ganga waters at Farakka during the lean season. As per the Treaty, the Ganges water is being distributed at Farakka (which is the last control point on river Ganga in India) during lean period, from 1st January to 31st May every year as per the formula provided in the Treaty. The validity of Treaty is 30 years. Though there is a provision of review after five years, no party has made the demand so far.  

India approaches the water sharing issue on the basis of “equity, fairness and no harm to either party” embodied in the Ganges Treaty as general principles governing all rivers and would surely be willing to take on board any genuine concerns of Bangladesh.

The two neighbouring countries should cooperate in harnessing the potential of their common rivers and fighting the challenge of climate change. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sounds truly dedicated to save her country’s river systems.  She has a vision. But the real test of realizing a vision of giving a new lease of life to Bangladesh’s river systems lies in forming a comprehensive plan and then implementing it fully in stages within a time-frame without yielding the least to interest groups who could be working to defeat such a plan.

Thus, what is imperative is speed in the creation of such a plan and to get down equally as fast to its implementation. This plan will need to be very detailed in nature to examine all sides, quantify the resources to be mobilised and the manner of its execution so that nothing gets halted from rethinking or new developments as the plan takes off.

Dredging has to be a very vital part of the plan. In fact, dredging should be a regular activity. But at the moment Bangladesh has hardly a dredging fleet worth talking. Thus, first of all, priority must be given to raising a big enough and good enough dredger fleet at the earliest.

The dredgers must be adequate in number and training of their operators and other service related issues will have to be taken care of within a short period of time. The dredging programme or works of it, once started, must not stagnate.

In the past the dredged silt was just left in large heaps on the banks to be washed back into the rivers. Planning now must ensure proper silt disposal. The dredging of the rivers in and around Dhaka must coincide with actions to enforce the laws and regulations which require industries on river banks to build and operate effluent treatment plants (ETPs).  For the maintenance of the river banks on a sustainable basis, a separate body could be formed. Assistance can be taken from some neighbours like India which have good experiences in this area.

Bangladesh also must have a better water management plan. Floods of varying intensity and the trail of destruction are a source of constant anxiety. While there is no water management plan on the one hand, there is a spectacle of gross neglect in oversight activities in small water management-related works that are taken up every year.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has highlighted large-scale waste of public resources on water management.  So, it is essential for Bangladesh to identify its objectives for the medium-term, like, for instance, building of big reservoirs to store flood or rain water that is going waste now and to use these waters in the dry season for irrigation and other purposes.