Bangladesh wants the water guarantee in its 1977 agreement with India restored in a replacement Ganges treaty. Water Resources Minister Anee set out that priority in Dhaka as the current thirty-year arrangement approaches its December expiry. Technical negotiations are continuing, with ministerial talks to follow. Experts at the seminar urged wider river-basin management alongside the division of dry-season flows.
Bangladesh’s Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee wants the guarantee clause in the 1977 Ganges agreement restored when the country replaces its water-sharing treaty with India. The minister said in Dhaka on October 8 that negotiations should produce a new agreement before the current arrangement expires on December 12.[1], [2]
The thirty-year treaty signed in 1996 replaced earlier arrangements. Minister Anee said the Joint Rivers Commission, the bilateral body handling shared-river issues, is carrying out technical work, with ministerial discussions expected next. Bangladesh also wants the replacement to run for many more years. No signed replacement or final bilateral agreement on its terms was announced.[1]
At the seminar, Malik Fida A Khan, executive director of the Centre for Science, Technology, Policy and Diplomacy, explained the earlier guarantee. He said Bangladesh had been assured at least eighty percent of its scheduled share when flows fell below expectations in a ten-day period. Farakka flow calculations drew on observations from 1948–1973, he said. Khan argued for management of the whole river basin alongside distribution at one point, while acknowledging that changes could not all happen immediately.[1]
