Bangladesh Seeks Guarantee Clause in Renewed Ganges Treaty

New Delhi: Bangladesh may seek a “guarantee clause” for minimum water flow in the renewed Ganges Water Treaty with India and could approach international forums to protect its water rights, Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee said in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Anee indicated that Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman may raise the issue during his visit to the United Nations in September.

The bilateral treaty, signed in 1996 for 30 years to govern dry-season water sharing at the Farakka Barrage, will expire on December 12, 2026. During negotiations, Bangladesh is pushing to reinstate the guarantee clause, or safeguard provision, included in the original 1977 treaty and may also seek the right to information to ensure transparency in water sharing.

Bangladesh maintains that since 70 per cent of the Ganga basin is in India, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal utilise a majority of the water, leaving less for Bangladesh as a lower-basin country.

Anee said Dhaka must negotiate the new Ganges water-sharing treaty, also known as the Farakka Treaty, with India in light of changed circumstances and new realities.

“I hope the Prime Minister will present a strong position on the treaty in favour of Bangladesh when he visits the United Nations next month. He must firmly present our rights and interests there," Anee said during a seminar titled 'Ganges Water Treaty: Issues for Renegotiation’. He added that Dhaka was willing to seek legal recourse at the international level if necessary to safeguard the country’s interests.

“The first treaty, signed in 1977, protected our interests. It included a guarantee clause. But memorandums of understanding were signed in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985, and none of them contained a guarantee clause. The 1996 treaty subsequently dropped the guarantee clause,” the minister said, adding Bangladesh had been deprived because the guarantee clause was absent, Prothom Alo reported.

“Our relationship with the neighbouring country is friendly. However, our friends need to provide greater cooperation in safeguarding Bangladesh’s interests and rights. We must take the relationship forward while respecting the feelings of the people of Bangladesh and the interests of the country,” the minister was reported to have said.

The minister said Bangladeshis had long viewed the Farakka Barrage as a “death trap” adding India had built barrages and around 900 embankments along the Ganges after Farakka, which had strained relations between the two countries. “As a result, people in Bangladesh had developed a negative perception of India,” he was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) maintains that inputs on drinking and industrial water requirements have been received from all stakeholders, including the West Bengal government, and taken into account while formulating the government’s position on the Ganga Water Treaty negotiations.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said discussions between the two countries on the Ganga, Teesta and other shared water issues would continue through the bilateral Joint Rivers Commission and established structured dialogue mechanisms.

"There are several rivers which are shared between Bangladesh and India. In fact, to be precise, to pinpoint the numbers, 54 rivers are shared between the two countries. And all water-related collaboration or discussions that have to happen between the two countries, they have to be done through the bilateral Joint Rivers Commission or Joint Rivers Commission that we have with Bangladesh, along with the structured dialogue mechanisms that are in place," Jaiswal said.