Guwahati:
At a time when India is trying to relaunch bilateral relations with Bangladesh amid China’s growing interest in Bangladesh, Dhaka and New Delhi are preparing for a bilateral joint consultation committee between the two sides’ foreign ministers in June, that would clear the deck for a likely visit by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in July.
But a controversial issue between the two countries that has remained unresolved for a decade is the water-sharing deal on the Teesta River.
“It is a pity that we have not been able to conclude the Teesta water sharing agreement for 11 years. We share 54 rivers with India. We would like to share and collaborate on joint management of all rivers. Joint management is necessary for the well-being from people from both sides, the entire watershed,” Dr. AK Abdul Momen to DailyExpertNews on the sidelines of the NADI conclave in Guwahati.
“It’s a pity, we were ready, they were ready, but the deal is not done yet. In the future there will be a big call for water and we have to prepare for it,” said the foreign minister. from Bangladesh.
The Teesta River rises in the Teesta Kangse Glacier and flows through Sikkim and West Bengal before entering Bangladesh. It has been embroiled in conflict since 1947, when the Teesta river basins were assigned to India.
In 2011, India agreed to share 37.5 percent of Teesta’s waters while preserving 42.5 percent of the waters during the lean season between December and March. However, the deal never went through due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was vehemently opposed to the treaty. In addition, the constant construction of dams along the Teesta in Sikkim has resulted in a meager seasonal discharge to Bangladesh.
“Assam, Bangladesh faced flooding at the same time this year, we need to cooperate more with water drainage technology, jointly develop flood early warning systems, jointly manage the river is a win-win situation for both countries,” said Dr. Momen.
In media reports of heavy Chinese build-up on Yarlung Tsangpo – it will be Brahmaputra in India and Jamuna in Bangladesh – the foreign minister lamented that the “problems” of the “lower riparian state” are being overlooked.
“In the Brahmaputra basin, only 3 percent is in China, in India only 6 percent of people are affected by the river, but we are the lower riparian state with 23 percent affected people. One country alone cannot develop infrastructure for this cross-border river. We need to look together at the inhabitants of the Brahmaputra basin, be it Chinese development or India or Bangladesh. We all need to think about the impact on the whole basin and its people,” said Dr Momen.
There is a lot of media rumor that Bangladesh is talking about a nearly $1 billion loan from China for an extensive management and restoration project on the Teesta River. The project aims to efficiently manage the catchment area, manage flooding and address the summer water crisis.
The Bangladeshi foreign minister said: “We have not yet received a formal proposal from China on Teesta, the proposal China proposed was initially a French project designed by French engineers in 1989. It was expensive, that time we could not manage money. Now the Chinese are picking up part of it, the Teesta project, but this is what I’ve gathered from media reports, they haven’t sent us a proposal as of now. We’ll have to see how it goes, because from now on India doesn’t really do much about the problem of sharing water with Teesta, so they came up with a proposal, it’s a lucrative proposal,” said Dr Momen.
In September 2016, the Bangladesh Water Development Board entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Powerchina or the Power Construction Corporation of China to conduct a technical study to better manage the Teesta for the benefit of the greater Rangpur region in northern Bangladesh.
“However, Testa is an unresolved issue, so our people would of course urge the government to investigate any new proposal, because many are the reason why there is so much talk about the Chinese project about Teesta in the media,” the foreign minister said. Affairs.
“We are very optimistic that India will agree to go through with the deal, even West Bengal will agree, and we will achieve it,” he said.