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Can India unilaterally proceed with water diversion mega project?
ON 24 July, the British daily The Guardian reported that India had prepared plans to divert substantial quantity of water from major rivers including the international rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra that flow through Bangladesh. It is recently reported that India's President has confirmed his country's river-linking mega project. On 13 August, Bangladesh Foreign Office summoned the acting Indian head of the Diplomatic Mission in Dhaka to express its concern over an Indian mega project to unilaterally divert waters from major common rivers.
One fact, however, must be made clear is that India can initiate riverlinking project within its territory without unilaterally diverting or withdrawing waters from common rivers that flow through Bangladesh. If water-sharing agreements are concluded with Bangladesh on common rivers, it is assumed that Bangladesh would not unnecessarily object to what India does within its country. Deep concern will no doubt arise if without Bangladesh's agreement, India unilaterally withdraws or diverts waters of common /inter-national rivers.
Bangladesh is a deltaic country and the delta is second only to that of Amazon system in Brazil. As an old saying goes "Swimming is the birth right of all Bangladeshis". From birth every child experiences symbiotic relations with rivers and river forms an integral part of his/her development. Rivers are part of ecology of Bangladesh and if they are disturbed, ecology of the country is adversely affected. Rivers also play a great part in the makeup of the culture of the people and in Bangladesh river-songs (Bhatiali songs) by the boatmen are instances in point. Paintings, poems and other artefacts depict the close correlation between rivers and people in Bangladesh.
The pride of Bangladesh is its waterways that are about 15,000 miles in length. Rivers provide lifeline to the people of Bangladesh (135 million). During the dry season the country depends for 85 per cent of its water on the flow of the Gan-
ges and Brahmaputra. Rivers know no political boundaries and flowing across countries, international rivers/common rivers provide water for irrigation, industry, generation of hydro-electric power and other human uses. Furthermore, the economic prosperity of Bangladesh depends on availability of waters in the rivers and one of the factors of economic growth depends on its agriculture sector, thereby needing water for irrigation during the dry
season. River waters are key to progress and economic and social development for the people of Bangladesh.
No wonder Bangladesh gets deeply concerned when it learns that its river waters are to be unilaterally interfered with by India. One of Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said that living next to US, "is like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt". India needs to be aware of this fact in relations to its small neighbours and be sensitive as to what it does that may affect them.
Nepal, India and Bangladesh are co-riparians of the Ganges (1568 miles) and China, India and Bangladesh share Brahmaputra (1765 miles) river. The picture conceals important fluctuations of weather during a year. While during dry season (November to May) drought sets in most areas in Bangladesh, floods may occur during the monsoon (June to October). Neither Bangladesh nor India appears to have an efficient water management system in place to hold on monsoon waters to be utilized during the dry season.
Bangladesh is placed in an unenviable position. All the rivers (at least 56) flow through Bangladesh from India. It means that Bangladesh is the lower riparian country in relation to India. Being a lower riparian, Bangladesh cannot divert waters that may cause harm to India. On the other hand, India has been placed in an advantageous position because being an upper riparian in all common rivers, it has the capacity to unilaterally divert or
withdraw waters up stream from common rivers to the detriment of Bangladesh.
From the very beginning of Bangladesh's independence in 1971, a Joint River Commission was set up between Bangladesh and India in 1972 to harness the waters of the common rivers including those of Ganges and Brahmaputra for the benefit of the peoples of both countries. The fact is that the question of augmentation of waters of the Gan-
ges became one of the issues that dominated during discussions among the members of Joint Rivers Commission from the early 70s to the present day.
In the 70s, India proposed an east-west link-canal through Bangladesh territory to connect the Ganges with Brahmaputra with a view to augmenting the flows of the Ganges. Bangladesh could not endorse the project mainly because (a) it would cut across the natural direction of all rivers in Bangladesh that ran in north and south direction, (b) it would displace about 40 million Bangladeshi people and (c) the canal would be so deep and wide that would likely to bring unintended adverse consequences including ecological disaster to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, on the other hand,
proposed that water resources of the Ganges could be augmented on cooperative efforts of Nepal, India and Bangladesh to which India was not enthusiastic. India's long-held policy is to deal bilaterally the issues between Bangladesh and India and Nepal, a third party, should not get involved in it. The so-called bilateralism pursued by India killed Bangladesh's proposal.
Some knowledgeable hydrological experts believed at the time that
India would not abandon its Ganges-Brahmaputra link project. The bottom line is that India considers waters of Brahmaputra are sufficient to meet the needs of its eastern states including Bihar and West Bengal and the Ganges waters need to be diverted to the western and southern states in India.
The question remained how Brahmaputra waters would be available to Bihar and West Bengal states. One mechanism is to divert water from Brahmaputra through the northern neck of the West Bengal and link with other rivers within India. The only technical problem reportedly was that the water level of Brahmaputra was much lower than those of other rivers flowing through India and India did not at the time had the technology to lift
water from Brahmaputra to other rivers flowing through West Bengal.
India's National Water Development Authority (NWDA) is believed to have prepared a mega scheme of linking Brahmaputra with the Ganges with the aid of modern technology, thereby linking all major rivers at an estimated cost of about US$200 billion. It exactly fits in with the view of some hydrological experts that India would finally link Brahmaputra with the Ganges
bypassing the territory of Bangladesh.
The crucial question is: Can India unilaterally do this? The simple answer is: No. The reasons are argued as follows.
The 1996 Ganges Water Treaty was concluded at the highest political level between the two sides for a period of 30 years. The preamble of the Treaty provides, among others, that both countries are "desirous of sharing by mutual agreement the waters of the international rivers flowing through the territories of the two countries and making of the optimum utilisation of the water resources of their region in the fields of flood management, irrigation, river basin development and generation of hydro-power for the mutual benefit of the peoples of the
two countries".
The above statement makes it very clear that both Bangladesh and India have agreed to share waters of international rivers. This simply means that the Ganges and Brahmaputra, being international rivers, are to be shared between the two countries by mutual agreement and India is in no position to unilaterally divert or withdraw waters from international rivers without Bangladesh's agreement.
Furthermore, Article 9 of the Treaty specifically states that "both Governments agree to conclude water sharing Treaties/Agreements with regard to other common rivers". The expression "other common rivers" includes not only Brahmaputra but also other common rivers that flow through Bangladesh from India. This Article makes it an obligation for both countries to conclude water-sharing agreements of all common rivers. It is significant that the principle of sharing has also been agreed upon and it is to be based on "equity, fairness and no harm to either party". It is therefore argued that nothing is left vague with regard to the sharing of common rivers of the two countries.
India is a responsible country and cannot violate the solemn obligations in terms of the provisions of the 1996 Ganges Water Treaty in unilaterally diverting or withdrawing waters from common rivers causing harm to Bangladesh. The sharing of waters of common rivers is an obligation under the Treaty and the issue of unilateral diversion of waters of common rivers does not hold good and will be considered a thorn to the existing good relations between the two hugging neighbours.
Bangladesh is surrounded by its largest neighbour India on three sides. Neighbouring countries cannot be chosen and are destined to live forever side by side. We cannot get away from the realities of geography and cannot re-fashion nature. Today both countries face an immense task of building a peaceful, prosperous and egalitarian society into a new regional architecture and both India and Bangladesh have to approach this onerous task with cooperation, commitment and imagination. In this environment there is no room for water dispute between the two countries.
Water-sharing agreements are quite common. Institutional solutions for management and sharing of common rivers have been reached from the Mekong to the Moselle, the Rhine to the Rio Grande. Some 200 riversharing treaties have been concluded worldwide. Out of them, 148 (70%) are shared by two countries, 31 rivers by three countries and 21 rivers by four countries ... Bangladesh and India have concluded the 1996 Ganges Water Treaty to share waters of the Ganges and it is appropriate that similar water-sharing arrangements are concluded on all common rivers in accordance with Article 9 of the Treaty.
Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.