A 11-member Bangladeshi delegation of the Joint Rivers Commission arrived in Kolkata on Monday morning to attend the 86th meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission.
The delegation led by Md. Abul Hossan visited the Farakka barrage in Bengal to assess the implementation of the previous water treaty, observed the water flow of the Ganges and the erosion occurring at Farakka.
This comes ahead of the renewal of the Indo-Bangla water treaty.
A meeting of the technical teams of the Joint Rivers Commission of India and Bangladesh began in Kolkata on the Ganga Water Treaty, which is due for renewal in 2026, an official said.
According to West Bengal government officials, the Joint Rivers Commission, which includes members from the governments of India, Bangladesh and West Bengal, meets once a year to discuss issues regarding the cross-boundary rivers.
According to the state administration sources, three representatives from the state, Principal Secretary of the Irrigation Department Manish Jain and Secretaries Sanjay Kundu and Biplob Mukherjee, are among those attending the meeting.
A senior official and member of the Joint River Commission said, “This is meeting is not for any conclusion. So, don’t expect any concluding remarks or decision from this meeting. This meeting only discusses the possibility and the subjects that can be raised during the final treaty meeting.”
Following the secretarial-level meeting between the two countries, a six-member technical committee comprising representatives from both nations will be formed, which will determine the future of the agreement in the next three months. The formation of this committee is expected to be discussed at the Joint River Commission meeting.
The Ganga Water Treaty, signed in 1996 between Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, is set to expire next year after a 30-year term. Jyoti Basu was the West Bengal Chief Minister at that time.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to involve West Bengal in the treaty discussions.
“I came to understand that the Government of India is in the process of renewing the Indo Bangladesh Farakka Treaty (1996) which is to expire in 2026. It is a Treaty, which delineates the principles of sharing of water between Bangladesh and India and as you are aware it has huge implications for the people of West Bengal for maintaining their livelihood and that the water which is diverted at the Farakka Barrage helps in maintaining the navigability of the Kolkata port. I would like to bring to your notice that river morphology has changed in the eastern part of India and Bangladesh over many years which has deprived West Bengal and negatively impacted the water availability in the state,” CM Banerjee wrote in the letter.
“There has been eastward migration of the Ganges (and Padma in Bangladesh) over the last 200 years disrupting their link with several rivers in West Bengal. For example, Jalangi and Mathabhanga rivers’ got disconnected from Padma and the fresh water inflow into the Sundarbans has reduced. In fact, the genesis of construction of Farakka Barrage Project is the disconnection of the Bhagirathi from the Ganges,” she further added.