Dhaka-Delhi Joint Rivers Commission talks tomorrow

A secretary-level talks of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) between Bangladesh and India will be held in Dhaka tomorrow.

The seven-hour long meeting will begin at the state guest house Jamuna at 10:30am after eight years to discuss a joint effort to ensure the best use of the Ganges water.

Water secretaries from two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh and India last sat in June 2011 in New Delhi to settle the Teesta water-sharing issues. Eight years have gone through, two secretaries will discuss the Teesta water issues in the meeting.

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Revisiting the 1996 Ganges Treaty

“We are going to discuss doing a joint study on how to ensure the best use of Ganges water. Bangladesh and India never worked jointly on this issue before. So, two countries never conducted any joint studies on this before,” Kabir Bin Anwar, secretary to the Water Resources Ministry of Bangladesh, said to The Daily Star last evening.

“And the Teesta water-sharing issues will be there,” he said.

But the issue of the Ganges barrage will dominate the discussion, an official source said. The delegations of the two countries will discuss the possibilities of constructing the Ganges barrage jointly or finding an alternative way to ensure the best use the Ganges water, Bangladesh gets under the Ganges Water Treaty 1996.

A delegation led by Upendra Prasad Singh, water resource secretary, India reached Dhaka today.

The discussion titled, conducting Feasibility Study and Implementation of Ganges-Padma Barrage in Bangladesh jointly by India and Bangladesh for optimum utilization.

Indian technical and financial assistance for conducting Feasibility Study and Implementation of Ganges-Padma Barrage in Bangladesh jointly by India and Bangladesh for optimum utilization of water received under the provision of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, 1996.

Bangladesh and India share a total 54 transboundary rivers. The JRC was formed to resolve conflicts about sharing of waters of those trans-boundary rivers. So far two countries have only one treaty of sharing the water of the Ganges river signed in 1996.