Crucial Indo-Bangla talks on Teesta water sharing begins

Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jan 10 (PTI) India and Bangladesh on Monday
launched their crucial talks to hammer out an interim
agreement on sharing of waters of Teesta river in dry season
for the next 15 years.

The Teesta River, flows for almost the entire length
of the north Indian state of Sikkim. It then forms the border
between Sikkim and eastern Indian state West Bengal before
joining the Brahmaputra river as a tributary in Bangladesh.
India's Water Resources Secretary Dhruv Vijai Singh
and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Mohammad Wahiduzzaman
met at the state guest house of Meghna this morning, a
spokesman of the Indo-Bangal Joint River Commission said.
Officials said the two countries are expected to draft
an interim agreement on water sharing in dry season in the
Teesta for the next 15 years.
The two countries are understood to have decided to
reach an interim agreement as protracted negotiations on the
Teesta since 1952 eluded a solution. The two neighbours had
only exchanged papers to resolve the issue in the past
decades.
Bangladesh submitted a draft interim treaty at the
minister-level talks of the JRC in New Delhi last year while
officials said the Bangladeshi proposal suggested a good share
of the water to be kept for the river itself and the rest to
be divided into two shares through India's Gazoldoba -- the
only release point of Teesta water to Bangladesh.
They said India earlier gave a 'statement of
principles' for sharing Teesta wanting the lion share of the
river waters while Dhaka proposed setting aside 20 per cent of
the river's total natural flow for the stream itself and
sharing the remaining 80 per cent equally.
The secretary-level meeting of the JRC is also likely
to discuss a short-term treaty for sharing water of the Feni
river, another border river in southeastern frontiers, while
negotiations were underway at expert level on sharing of
waters of six more rivers -- Monu, Khowai, Muhuri, Gomti,
Dhorla and Dudhkumar.
Foreign Minster Dipu Moni had recently said Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's government attached highest priority
towards concluding water sharing treaty of the Teesta. The
water of Teesta is crucial for Bangladesh, especially in the
leanest period from December to March.
Drastic fall in the water flow of Teesta during the
lean season, especially in February and March, seriously
hampers irrigation in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and India had inked a landmark treaty on
sharing of the Ganges water during Hasina's previous 1996-201
tenure removing a major irk in bilateral ties. PTI AR
HMI