What is holding up the Teesta treaty?

• A technical team will soon visit Bangladesh to discuss conservation and management of the Teesta river in Bangladesh.
• The remark triggered speculation about the Teesta water sharing treaty with Bangladesh, a key bilateral agreement that has been pending between the two countries for over a decade.

What is India’s stand?

• Foreign Secretary told the media that the discussion “between the two leaders was less about water sharing per se, and more about the management of the water flows within Teesta”.
• West Bengal Chief Minister took issue with the Centre’s stand.
  • She wrote a letter to the Indian PM conveying her strong reservation that no discussion on the sharing of Teesta waters should be taken up with Bangladesh without the involvement of the State.

Why is Bengal upset?

• Bengal CM pointed out that if Teesta’s water is shared with Bangladesh, lakhs of people in north Bengal will get severely impacted.
• This is not the first time she has voiced her opposition to the proposed water sharing agreement of India with Bangladesh.
• In 2017, the Chief Minister had also referred to an alternative proposal of sharing waters of the Torsa, Manshai, Sankosh and Dhansai rivers but not Teesta.
• In all, 54 rivers flow between India and Bangladesh and sharing of river waters has been a key bilateral issue.
• India and Bangladesh agreed on the sharing of waters of the Ganga in 1996 after the construction of the Farakka Barrage and by the 2010s the issue of sharing of the Teesta came up for negotiation.
• In 2011, during the United Progressive Alliance-II government, India and Bangladesh were close to signing an agreement on the Teesta but Bengal CM walked out of the deal, and since then, the agreement has been pending.

What is the proposal?

• In 2011, when the proposal for sharing Teesta water was drawn up, it was said India would get 42.5% and Bangladesh 37.5% of the river water from December to March.
• A tributary of the Brahmaputra, the Teesta river originates from the Tso Lhamo Lake in north Sikkim.
• The river travels for about 150 km in Sikkim and 123 km in West Bengal, before entering Bangladesh it flows another 140 km in Bangladesh and joins the Bay of Bengal.
• Teesta is Bangladesh’s fourth largest trans-boundary river and its floodplain covers an area of 2,750 square kilometres in Bangladesh.
• But 83% of the river’s catchment area lies in India and the remaining 17% is in Bangladesh, supporting 8.5% of its population and 14% of its crop production.

What are the political considerations?

• While the Awami League government in Bangladesh is facing questions from the Opposition about the delay in inking an agreement on the Teesta, the dams for hydro-electric power generation in Sikkim and the Teesta Barrage Project at Gazoldoba in West Bengal is making the flow of the river erratic in Bangladesh, leading to either floods or scarcity of water.
• The visit of a technical team from India to discuss conservation of the Teesta in Bangladesh also comes amid the backdrop of China proposing major dredging work on the river and building reservoirs and embankments in 2020.
• The Bangladesh government has put the proposal on hold for the past four years.
• Environmental activists have also been raising questions on the ecological impact of hydro-electric projects on the river.
• In October 2023, a glacial lake outburst triggered floods in the Teesta basin that claimed hundreds of lives and destroyed the Teesta III hydroelectric dam.
• Sharing of waters of transboundary rivers have been mandated by international laws including The Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers in 1966.
• Article 253 of the Indian Constitution gives powers to the government to enter any transboundary river water-related treaty with a riparian state.

Why is Bengal talking about the Ganga treaty?

• The Ganga water sharing treaty with Bangladesh completes 30 years in 2026 and a renewal of the agreement is on the cards.
• It has been pointed out that water sharing with Bangladesh has changed the Ganga’s morphology and affected lakhs of people in West Bengal owing to river erosion.
• “Lakhs of people have been displaced from their habitation rendering them homeless and also leading to their loss of livelihood.
• The reduced silt load in Hooghly has impeded the nourishment of the Sundarban delta.