Dhaka must seek remedy under int’l water convention

Homo Sapiens · Apr 11, 2023

Dhaka must seek remedy under int’l water convention

Published: 00:00, Apr 11,2023

IT IS unacceptable that India has continued to take projects to arbitrarily withdraw water from a number of trans-boundary rivers, depriving Bangladesh of its fair share of water. The Dharla, which originates in Bhutan and takes the name of Jaldhaka River while entering the northern Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal and flowing about 141km before entering Bangladesh, and a few other rivers in the northern part of Bangladesh, are faced with a bleak future as India is, keeping to Indian media, going to construct two new canals for withdrawing water from the Teesta and the Jaldhaka rivers. The canal that West Bengal plans to use to withdraw water from the River Jaldhaka would run 32 kilometres. Experts fear that the canal will cross over some other trans-boundary rivers that are not officially recognised but flow from India into Bangladesh between the Teesta and the Jaldhaka, drawing water from all these rivers as well. The canal, with an average width of 1,200 metres, is feared to slowly kill the River Dharla that travels through Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts. On March 19, Dhaka sent a note verbale to New Delhi seeking to know about the projects but has not received any reply.

The arbitrary withdrawal of water from the River Jaldhaka is feared to impact the environment, biodiversity, agriculture and economy. The livelihoods of river-dependent people in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat, two of the poorest districts in Bangladesh, will be in jeopardy. The withdrawal of water will also impact the Brahmaputra water supply chain. The sorry state of the River Teesta, once a mighty river, speaks abundantly of what is likely to happen to the River Dharla. Since India began to arbitrarily withdraw almost the entire flow of the river at the Gajaldoba Barrage, the mighty Teesta became a mere stream in Bangladesh, often broken by vast stretches of sandy riverbeds, and over the past two decades, 90 per cent of fish species in the Teesta went extinct. The situation has already exposed Bangladesh’s north to the threat of desertification. Two new canals would only deal a severe blow to the environment and economy of the region. India has done all this, putting on hold the signing of an instrument on the sharing of the water of the River Teesta and six other rivers, which both Delhi and Dhaka agreed on in 2010, in a 50:50 sharing formula, provisioning for 20 per cent of the water as the environmental flow. Bangladesh and India share at least 54 rivers, and the countries signed an agreement in 1996 only on the water of the River Ganges.

The arbitrary withdrawal of water from trans-boundary rivers is an example of Indian highhandedness and a sheer disregard for international water laws. Dhaka must, under the circumstances, take a stand on the issues, seek remedy under the international water convention and ask for environmental and economic compensations from India. Dhaka must pressurise New Delhi to sign water-sharing agreements on trans-boundary rivers, while New Delhi should understand that friendly bilateral relations do not work this way.