India and Bangladesh — the sharing of Teesta river waters

India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers between them. Despite setting up a Joint River Commission for water management as early as 1972, tensions between the countries on how to share resources recently came to a head in a dispute over the Teesta River. At stake are the lives of countless people from West Bengal and Bangladesh who depend upon the river for survival.

In 1983, an Adhoc Water Sharing Agreement was reached between India and Bangladesh, whereby both countries were allocated 39% and 36% of the water flow respectively.

The new bilateral treaty expands upon this agreement by proposing an equal allocation of the Teesta River.

However, the deal fell through when the then newly elected Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee , refused to approve the treaty, fearing that the loss of higher volume of water to the lower riparian would cause problems in the northern region of state, especially during drier months.

The Teesta River is said to be the lifeline of the India State of Sikkim flowing for almost the entire length of the state and carving out verdant Himalayan temperate and tropical river valleys. The river then forms the border between Sikkim and West Bengal before joining the Brahmaputra as a tributary in Bangladesh.

The total length of the river is 309 kilometres (192 mi). It drains an area of 12,540 square kilometres (4,840 sq mi).

 

The Teesta – which has its source in Sikkim – flows through the northern part of West Bengal in India before entering Bangladesh, where after coursing through about 45km of irrigable land, merges with the Brahmaputra River (or Jamuna when it enters Bangladesh)