India, Bangladesh make progress on sharing of river waters

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, August 26

The India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, which met here on Thursday after a gap of 12 years, made some progress on water sharing of common rivers and decided to include eight more rivers where India will advance flow information. However, an agreement on the Teesta river did not make much progress.

The text of the MoU for interim water sharing of the Kushiyara river was finalised at the 38th minister-level meeting of the commission. The Kushiyara water-sharing agreement is likely to be signed during Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi on September 6 and 7. This will enable Bangladesh to irrigate 5,000 hectares of farmland by using water from the Kushiyara.

The two delegations also discussed preparing drafts of the water-sharing framework for the Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar rivers.

The meet also agreed to widen the area of the ongoing cooperation by including eight more rivers for data exchange. India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers, of which seven rivers have been identified earlier for developing water-sharing agreements. The matter will be further discussed at the JRC Technical-level Committee meeting, likely to be held this year in Dhaka. India had recently extended the period of flood-data sharing beyond October 15 . The Indian delegation was led by Shekhawat, and Pankaj Kumar, secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, attended the meeting among others.

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