India to discuss Teesta water project and renewal of Ganga water treaty

His remarks follow Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation and flight into exile on 5 August amid violent student protesters. She is currently thought to be in India.

Teesta treaty has been a long-standing demand of Bangladesh, which wants equitable distribution of Teesta water with India—on the lines of the Ganga Water Treaty of 1996. As West Bengal and Sikkim opposed it, the proposal by Bangladesh was turned into a conservation and management of Teesta water project, which is worth of billion of dollars. 

Teesta has remained an outstanding issue even as relations between the two countries warned to their best ever in recent years.  

The project assumes greater significance as China too has expressed an interest in it, which brings an entirely new security dimension into the matter. Under the project, it is envisaged to build a large reservoir and related infrastructure to manage and conserve Teesta River water.

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A 414-km-long river flowing through Sikkim and West Bengal, before merging into the river Meghna in Bangladesh, Teesta is the fourth-largest trans-boundary river shared between India and Bangladesh after the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna.

It is also one of the main sources of irrigation for North Bengal and Rangpur region of Bangladesh, especially during dry months. The river is also the main hydroelectric power source for the mountainous state of Sikkim.

“It would have been better and beneficial for us (India) if she (Sheikh Hasina) remained in power. Her vision was broad as far as India is concerned. Considering the current situation, talks cannot take place. 

Once the situation eases and a new government is formed, we will discuss this (Teesta water sharing, conserving and managing project) at the diplomatic level and get it sorted," Choudhary told Mint.

About the Ganga water treaty renewal, the minister said, “We are moving forward positively."

The Ganga treaty will complete 30 years in 2026 and calls for a renewal.

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Queries sent to the spokesperson of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, and the concerned departments of Sikkim and West Bengal governments remained unanswered at press time.

Teesta featurted in Modi-Hasina talks  

Teesta was one of the major topics discussed between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina during her last visit to India on 21-22 June. A major outcome was for India to send a technical team to Bangladesh soon for a mega project to conserve and manage Teesta River.

Modi said at the time the two countries had also decided to start negotiations at the technical level for the renewal of the 1996 Ganga Water Treaty.

"A technical team will soon visit Bangladesh for talks to conserve and manage the Teesta River in Bangladesh," the Indian PM said in his media statement in June.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra at a media briefing said at the time that India plans to undertake conservation and management of the Teesta River in Bangladesh and that there would be Indian assistance for this.

Modi earlier said Bangladesh is India's largest development partner and New Delhi attaches highest priority to its relations with that country.

The demand for equitable sharing of the Teesta water goes back to 1947, but it has always been opposed by West Bengal and Sikkim. In 1972, shortly after the liberation of Bangladesh, a Joint River Commission was formed to verify the water sharing options between the two neighbours. 

Based on the commission’s recommendations, in 1984 it was decided that the water share of Bangladesh will be 37.5% and India’s share 42.5%, with 20% left unallocated.

In 1998 Bangladesh launched the Teesta barrage irrigation project to supply water for three cropping seasons a year in Rangpur and asked for more share of Teesta water. 

In 2011, it proposed an interim deal, which was shelved after Bengal and Sikkim opposed it. The deal has remained unsigned.

At present, Teesta waters irrigate 922,000 hectares of land in North Bengal and provide 67.60 MW of hydropower.

Experts were sceptical about the future of the Teesta agreement in the backdrop of Hasina's exit.

“Overall, India-Bangladesh water sharing has to be done in a more scientific manner with far greater coordinated water management in that region. Within this current situation in Bangladesh all this has gone backwards. One does not know when things will normalize, when the elections will take place, who will be dealing with the situation and what their position will be because Sheikh Hasina is no more in power and the agreements were with her. There is huge uncertainty on the Bangladesh side," said Sujit Dutta, distinguished fellow and the editor of the quarterly journal, National Security, at the Vivekananda International Foundation. 

“Till a new government is formed, I don't think the issue will come back to the table." 

Brahma Chellaney, professor emeritus of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said, “It’s too early to say what the policy priority of the new government will be. A new government has not yet formed. We don’t know the names of the cabinet ministers – we don’t know if the new government will be hostile, friendly or neutral to India."

“The important thing for India and Bangladesh is the Ganges River treaty. Teesta is a small river, but it is important for India’s West Bengal and Sikkim while it assumes equal significance for north-west part of Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh has been seeking a Teesta water treaty with India for two decades now but because of West Bengal government not agreeing, the Indian government has not been able to push it forward. The down-river project is designed as a substitute to the treaty because it will augment supply of water downstream by capturing water through a big barrage and release it during the dry season. We don’t know what the attitude of the new government will be. The contract was not signed with India before Hasina was overthrown."

Manas Pimpalkhare contributed to this story.