Bangladesh's ties with India 'will depend on' Ganges water treaty renewal: BNP

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul alleged that the uncertainty over the renewal of the existing 30-year Ganges water treaty, is raising concerns over future water-sharing arrangements.

Dhaka: Bangladesh's ruling BNP on Saturday said the country's relations with India “will depend on” a new Ganges Water Sharing Treaty as it sought immediate talks with New Delhi for an agreement in line with Dhaka's "expectations and needs".

The Indo-Bangladesh Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, signed in 1996, is due to expire in December.

"We want to send a clear message to the Indian government that a (new Ganges) treaty must be implemented immediately through discussions according to the expectations and needs of Bangladesh's people," Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at an event here.

The opportunity to establish good relations with India "will depend on the signing of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty or the Farakka Agreement", said Alamgir, who is also the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister.

He alleged that the uncertainty over the renewal of the existing 30-year Ganges water treaty, signed during the tenure of the now-disbanded Awami League government led by deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, is raising concerns over future water-sharing arrangements.

He said the current agreement should remain effective until a new treaty was signed and suggested that future water-sharing agreements between the two neighbours should not be limited to a fixed tenure.

The Ganges, known as the Padma after entering Bangladesh through the northwestern Chapai Nawabganj district, is a major river system in the lower riparian deltaic nation, criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, including 54 originating in or flowing through India.

Alamgir said nearly one-third of Bangladesh’s 170 million people depended on the river system for livelihoods, biodiversity and water supply to several distributaries.

The BNP leader's remarks came three days after Bangladesh on Wednesday approved a mega project to build a barrage on the Padma river, which it said would help "negate the negative impact" of the Farakka Barrage in upstream India's West Bengal.

The project is expected to be completed by 2033.

Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee on Wednesday said the proposed Padma Barrage is "a matter of Bangladesh's own interest and there is no need for any discussion with India on the issue".

"Discussions are necessary regarding the Ganges, and those are ongoing,” Anee told reporters after the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

Leading water expert Ainun Nishat, who played a key role in drafting the Ganges Water Treaty, cautiously welcomed the Padma Barrage project, saying its utility would depend largely on the continuation of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty.

Several other experts, however, cautioned that the proposed barrage could intensify the adverse effects of the Farakka Barrage by increasing sediment deposits and raising riverbeds in Bangladesh.

The 2,240-metre-long Farakka Barrage was built to divert water into the Hooghly river to flush sediments and maintain navigability at Kolkata Port.

The Farakka issue has long remained a sensitive subject in Bangladesh, with successive governments and experts alleging that reduced dry-season water flows downstream caused salinity intrusion, river degradation and adverse effects on agriculture and ecology in the lower riparian country.

India has consistently maintained that the Farakka Barrage was built primarily to preserve the Kolkata port and that water-sharing issues have been addressed through bilateral mechanisms and agreements, including the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty between the two countries.