25 years of Ganga Water-sharing Treaty: Bangladesh-India joint water measurement to start tomorrow

The measurement of water level at different points of Padma River is going to kick off tomorrow (Saturday), jointly by Bangladesh and India under the Ganga Water-sharing Treaty-1996, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Like every year, four members from Bangladesh measure water level at two points in Farakkah and two members from India measure water level at Hardinge Bridge point, sources said.

The Indian team, headed by Shri Venkateswarlu, deputy director of Central Water Commission of India, and Assistant Director of the Commission Shri Nagendra Kumar are likely to reach the Hardinge Bridge point and will measure water level at 2500-ft upstream of the mighty river Padma from tomorrow, said Md Roich Uddin, acting executive engineer of Pabna Hydrology department. 

A four-member Bangladesh team, led by AKM Saifuddin, executive engineer of Joint Rivers Commission, has already reached India to measure water level of Ganga at two points of Farakkah, Roich added.

Every year, two joint expert committees, one in India and one in Bangladesh, record the water level for five months from January 1 to May 31, according to the Ganga Water-sharing Treaty.

In accordance with the treaty, Bangladesh is to get 67,650 cusecs of water every day on average in the first cycle of 10 days of January. The flow of water at the Hardinge Bridge point in the mighty river Padma is less than previous year's record, sources said.

According to the official data of the joint river commission (JRC), the flow of water was 1,02,574 cusecs last year although Bangladesh was supposed to get the share of 67,516 cusecs in that time, according to the schedule of the treaty.

The Ganga water-sharing agreement was signed between Bangladesh and India in 1996 to get a fair share of water of Padma River during the dry season. This is the 25th anniversary of the historic water-sharing agreement.