Ganges water treaty expiry threatens Bangladesh livelihoods

The Ganges water-sharing treaty between Bangladesh and India is due to expire on December 12, raising fears in Bangladesh over dry-season water shortages that affect farming, fishing and freshwater supplies.

The 1996 agreement governs water sharing at India's Farakka Barrage, about 20 kilometres upstream of Bangladesh. It has no automatic extension clause.

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, a Bangladeshi prime ministerial adviser who heads a technical committee on water-sharing, said Bangladesh needs a new deal based on “mutual benefit and respect”. Bangladesh said India had not responded to its request to negotiate a renewal.

India's foreign ministry said discussions on river-related matters are handled by the Joint Rivers Commission, which last held technical talks in May. The last officially confirmed ministerial-level meeting of the commission was in 2022.

The Ganges, known in Bangladesh as the Padma, runs through a basin that the World Bank says is home to 655 million people, including more than 50 million in Bangladesh. Farmers and fishers in Bangladesh's Barind region described shrinking river flows and falling catches.

Water-sharing disputes between the two countries go back decades and include 54 cross-border rivers. A proposed agreement for the Teesta river has been stalled since 2011.

Sheikh Rokon of the Dhaka-based environmental group Riverine People warned that failure to reach a new deal could make conditions worse than during earlier years without a treaty, saying demand for freshwater has grown on both sides.

Bangladesh approved the $2.8-billion Padma Barrage in May, a project intended to reduce shortages and include a 113-megawatt hydropower plant.