The Joint River Commission of India and Bangladesh will start monitoring water level at different points of the Ganges and the Padma today.

In line with the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, 1996, two joint expert committees, one in India and one in Bangladesh, record the water level for five months from January 1 to May 31 every year, said sources of water resources ministry.

According to the treaty, Bangladesh is to get 67,650 cusecs of water on an average daily in the first cycle of 10 days of January.

A four-member Bangladesh team led by executive engineer Md Mofazzal Hossain is now in India to measure the Ganges water level at two

points of Farakka while a two-member Indian team led by Shuresh Kumar, deputy director of Central Water Commission, India, came to monitor the water level of the Padma at Hardinge Bridge point.

The officials of Joint River Commission will examine the water flow just beside the Hardinge Bridge today, Md Rois Uddin, acting executive engineer of hydrology department of Water Development Board, Pabna, told this correspondent yesterday.

"The water level in the Padma is higher than the previous years during this time. There are about 96 thousand cusecs of water flow at Hardinge Bridge point according to the latest statistic of the hydrology," Rois said.