International Farakka Committee (IFC), in a statement, recently expressed hope that during the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Bangladesh the two countries will, in light of mutual friendship, take effective steps for basin-wide management of common rivers by keeping them alive from their source to sea.

Secretary-level water talks held in New Delhi between the two countries on March 16 made no visible progress, it said.

IFC said Bangladesh is home to 54 out of 57 rivers that flow into the country through India. Due to the withdrawal of water from upstream, more than 30 rivers in Bangladesh have died, especially in the absence of sustainable water management.

The Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, based on the faulty idea of water sharing at the border, is not serving its purpose in Bangladesh, it said.

The Bangladesh part of the Teesta dries up every lean season due to unsustainable diversion of its entire flow from the Gazaldoba Barrage. But in the wet season, the people of Bangladesh suffer from devastating floods from the Ganges and the Teesta, IFC said in the statement.

It believes, if the rivers die at their downstream in Bangladesh, the upstream in this natural water flow are also bound to die over time.

Rivers flowing through their natural floodplains remain alive and healthy because the groundwater of floodplains keeps them alive during the dry season.

A recent survey conducted under the leadership of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in different countries showed that integrated management of rivers from their sources to the sea (S2S) can ensure sustainable development and pollution control all along their banks, it said.

The signatories to the statement are Atiqur Rahman Salu, Chairman, and Sayed Tipu Sultan, Secretary-General, IFC New York; Prof Jasim Uddin Ahmad, President, Dr SI Khan, Senior Vice President, and Syed Irfanul Bari, General Secretary, IFC Bangladesh; and Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Coordinator of IFC.