Sharing Water Across Indo-Bangladesh Border

Abstract

The international boundary between India and Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) was drawn without any regard to holistic eco-hydrology of the Bengal in 1947. Since then 54 transboundary rivers continue to flow cutting across geography, cultures and borders. Many structural interventions in the rivers to meet the ever increasing demand for irrigation and hydro-power have impaired the delicate hydrology of the Bengal basin. In this subcontinent the rivers are often treated as political entities, and there is a tendency to consider them as stock not flow. The Bengal is proverbially land of rivers which render many apparently invisible services to the society. But there has been a dramatic lack of understanding in the river management planning how the eco-hydrological system functions. However, maintaining ecological flow of rivers is critical to the sustenance of biodiversity along with the well-being of millions of people who depend on the rivers. We need to explore a rational meeting point between the volume of water that may be extracted from the rivers and the flow to be maintained in the rivers to sustain the ecosystem, of which humans are only a part.

Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflicts. If all the world’s people work together, a secure and sustainable water future can be ours.

Kofi Annan (2002) Secretary General, UNO.