Zakir Hossain from Dhaka
Bangladesh has been waiting for nearly two months for India to respond to its proposal for talks on the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, which expires on December 11 this year after 30 years.
Dhaka’s foreign ministry sent a letter proposing negotiations in June, two months after the government formed a 10-member technical committee to deal with the treaty.
“We are waiting for India’s response,” Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, the prime minister’s adviser on economic and planning affairs and head of the committee, said recently. A foreign ministry official said no date for talks has yet been fixed.
The committee includes BRAC University professor emeritus Ainun Nishat, PM’s information adviser Zahed Ur Rahman, water resources secretary AKM Shahabuddin, PM’s special assistant on environment Saimum Parvez and foreign ministry South Asia director general Ataur Rahman, among others.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman recently met committee members to discuss broader water-sharing issues involving transboundary rivers. The government has also reconstituted the 12-member Joint Rivers Commission, headed by the water resources minister, which will serve as the formal channel for negotiations.
However, Dhaka has yet to clarify whether it will seek renewal of the existing treaty, negotiate an entirely new agreement or press for partial or comprehensive revision of its terms. Officials and experts involved in the process declined to comment on Bangladesh’s negotiating position.
Bangladesh and India share 54 transboundary rivers but have only one water-sharing treaty, the Ganges agreement signed on December 12, 1996, by then prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and HD Deve Gowda.
The absence of an automatic renewal clause has added urgency to negotiations, particularly as bilateral ties have been strained since the fall of Hasina’s government in August 2024. Joint Rivers Commission protocol meetings, however, continued in 2025 and 2026.
At a JRC meeting in New Delhi in September 2025, Bangladesh expressed preference for a longer-term agreement that would ensure more predictable water flows after the current treaty expires.
After the Tarique Rahman government took office in February, a joint technical team inspected the Hardinge Bridge point in Bangladesh and the Farakka point in India, with technical work continuing through May.
Dhaka is also considering long-term measures to address declining upstream flow in the Ganges. The government has taken up the Tk 34,497-crore Padma Barrage first-phase project to store monsoon water and release it into tributaries during the dry season. Experts say the project could reduce salinity intrusion and improve irrigation and ecological sustainability.
Sharif Jamil, coordinator of Waterkeepers Bangladesh, urged the government to approach the negotiations in a coordinated manner and look beyond the volume of water reaching Farakka.
“I don’t see any sign of in-depth analysis or coordinated government efforts to ensure the necessary flow of fresh water to the Ganges downstream,” he said, calling for equitable sharing across the common river system.
The Ganges, known as the Padma in Bangladesh, is crucial to the country: around 37% of its land area, covering 26 districts and 163 upazilas across four divisions, depends on the river.
Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. In June, however, he said technical teams of the two countries were working on renewal and remained in constant communication, while experts were considering new provisions, including additional guarantee clauses.
The treaty currently has no minimum water guarantee. It governs sharing during the January-May dry season through a formula based on available flow and 10-day periods. If flow is 70,000 cusecs or less, the water is divided equally. Between 70,000 and 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh receives 35,000 cusecs and India gets the remainder. At 75,000 cusecs or more, India receives 40,000 cusecs and Bangladesh gets the balance. Any shortfall is left to diplomatic consultation.
The issue has also drawn attention in India. Parliament’s Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, warned in its 15th Action Taken Report, tabled on July 30, that delays in beginning formal negotiations could strain bilateral relations.
The panel said the treaty was not merely a technical water-sharing arrangement but one affecting livelihoods, irrigation, agriculture and drinking water for millions on both sides, besides carrying political sensitivity in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Bihar.
It cautioned that failure to reach an arrangement before the treaty expires could undermine mutual confidence and complicate broader diplomatic ties at a time when both sides are seeking to rebuild their strategic partnership under Bangladesh’s new government.
The uncertainty over the Ganges comes against the backdrop of the unresolved Teesta issue. Bangladesh and India finalised a Teesta water-sharing arrangement in 2011, but it was never signed after opposition from then West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
With barely four months left before the Ganges treaty expires, Dhaka and New Delhi now face the task of negotiating an arrangement that could shape management of the river for decades.