The water resources minister, Anisul Islam Mahmud, said on Wednesday that the Teesta water sharing deal would certainly be signed between Dhaka and New Delhi because at least two Indian prime ministers had pledged to resolve the long-pending matter.
He, however, was not sure if inking the accord would take place during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s India tour, scheduled for December 18 to 20.
‘It is now a matter of time. The Teesta water sharing deal will certainly be signed since Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had made commitments to Bangladesh,’ Anisul told reporters after a speaking at a workshop on ‘draft river stabilization and preliminary river management master plan for the Jamuna-Padma-Meghna rivers.’
Addressing the workshop as chief guest, the water resources minister underlined the need for regional approach to have basin-wise water management of the common international rivers.
He said Bangladesh needs to construct a barrage over the Padma (Ganges in India) to make optimum usage of the Ganges waters it has been receiving from India, under a treaty.
Mahmud also discussed about flood control. He said the width of Jamuna would be narrowed down to six to seven kilometers from 12 kilometers, at places, under a flood control and river administration project to check erosions at various points.
Meandering in nature, the Jamuna has been widening and devouring new land each year, rendering thousands of people homeless, the minister said.
He said river erosions make at least 50,000 people landless every year and that 30 per cent of the homeless people in the city are the victims of river erosions.
The Bangladesh Water Development Board, with the Support of Asian Development Bank, organised the workshop in the city.
The signing of the Teesta water sharing deal, which was dropped at the last minute during former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September 2011 due to vehement objection by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, has been a very crucial matter for Bangladesh, a lower riparian country, officials said.
The Teesta flow drastically falls in the lean season, below 400 cusec (cubic feet per second), adversely affecting livelihoods and ecology in the northern districts, they said.
Mamata Banerjee while visiting Dhaka in February 2015 said that Dhaka needed not to be worried over Teesta waters. She had said the problem would be resolved soon.
The Teesta flow at Dalia point in Nilphamari was recorded at 318 cusecs on February 17, 2015, the lowest so far in the recent years.
Bangladesh has long been pushing for the signing of the Teesta water accord to ensure its equitable share of the trans-boundary river.
Source: New Age
