Sylhet Live News and Info: International

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Contrary to popular expectation of a water-sharing deal on Teesta waters being inked during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh on June 6 and 7, it now has become almost certain that there will only be table talks and not signing of an agreement. This is not a good news for farmers and the common people living along the Teesta River, who have been suffering for years due to lack of water during the dry season. According to the Joint River Commission (JRC), March 22 this year marked the lowest-ever flow for Teesta in the history of water flow records. Experts cite construction of big dams in upstream Gozaldoba by Indian authorities as the reason leading to diversion of water of Manosh, Dudhkumar, Shankosh, the Ganges and Dhorla rivers. The lack of water has put the entire ecology, including the population living along the Teesta river, under grave threat, observe experts. “We received only 232 cusec water in Teesta on March 22. Farmers living along the Teesta river have been facing an acute water crisis during the dry season,” Mir Sajjad Hossain, Member, Joint River Commission (JRC), told The Independent. New Delhi and Dhaka had agreed to sign a 15-year interim accord on sharing the waters of common rivers like Teesta and Feni at a Secretary-level meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission on January 11, 2011, in Dhaka. “We are ready and have finalised the modality of the Teesta agreement...just the quantum of water to be shared between Bangladesh and India is to be specified in the document,” Hossain added. Former UN official Dr S I Khan says that India has been withdrawing water from the Gozaldoba barrage and has diverted it to Mahananda by cutting a canal. “The water is also diverted in the upstream of the Farakka Barrage. Indian authorities have been diverting water in the upstream through 30 linking canals,” he told this correspondent. A total of 14 canals have been dug in the Himalayan region and 16 in southern India, Dr Khan said detailing India's river-linking project. Dr Khan now recommends that the government immediately resolve this water-related issue by taking it up with the Sixth Committee of the United Nations. Failure to do so, he warns, could soon result in a vast area turning into a desert due to lack of water.</div>
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Many people involved in duck rearing and fish cultivation along the canals constructed immediately after the Teesta Barrage have now been rendered jobless due to the shortage of water, Dr Khan points out.</div>
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“Besides, about six lakh trees planted along the canals could not survive due to lack of water,” he added.</div>
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Despite the signing of the Teesta water-sharing treaty high on agenda, the 38th JRC meeting scheduled for June 18-19, 2013, had to be postponed at the eleventh hour due to the then Indian Water Resources Minister’s inability to attend the bilateral talks in Dhaka. According to the minutes of the inter-ministerial meeting on the upcoming visit of the Indian Prime Minister, held on May 18 this year in the Foreign Ministry, unresolved issues will be discussed only on the basis of prepared notes for the 38th JRC meeting.</div>
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Notes finalised during the 38th JRC meeting included discussion on issues related to the construction of the Ganges barrage, fall in Teesta’s flow, water-sharing agreement on Teesta and Feni, basin-wide management of common rivers, Tipaimukh Hydro-electric project, sharing of water of other international common rivers and river-linking projects. Compulsions of politics in India, tough stand taken by the state governments concerned and the JRC meeting not being held for the last five years have all left these crucial issues unresolved. The 36th JRC meeting took place in Dhaka in 2005 and its 37th meeting was held in March, 2010, in New Delhi. Despite a provision for arranging meetings twice a year, no further meeting has been held since then.</div>

Teesta flows record low with no deal in sight

Contrary to popular expectation of a water-sharing deal on Teesta waters being inked during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vis...

Teesta flows record low with no deal in sight

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