JRC meeting ends amid silence
The 90th meeting of the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) on the landmark Ganges Water Sharing Treaty to be expired this year concluded in Kolkata on Friday without any public statement from either side.
Despite expectations, representatives from both countries remained silent after hours of discussions at the Fairfield by Marriott Hotel in New Town, Kolkata.
The meeting began at around 4:15pm local time on Friday and continued for nearly three and a half hours.
However, even after the session ended at around 7:30pm, none of the officials from either delegation spoke to journalists regarding the outcome of the talks or the future direction of negotiations over Ganges water sharing, according to Indian media.
The silence from both sides has intensified speculation over unresolved disagreements surrounding the renewal of the treaty and the broader framework for future water sharing between Bangladesh and India.
A day earlier, on Thursday, representatives from the two countries conducted a joint observation of water flow around the Farakka Barrage area in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
The teams inspected the main channel of the Ganges, the Farakka Barrage, the Bhagirathi and Padma rivers, as well as the feeder canal system from an observation point near Ghatpara Mela Ground in Beniya village.
No official findings from the joint monitoring exercise were released publicly. Both representatives described the inspection only as a “routine observation”, while Bangladeshi officials also refrained from disclosing details about the flow measurements.
Bangladesh’s six-member delegation at the JRC meeting was led by Md Anwar Qadir. The delegation included Sajjad Hossain, Abu Sayeed, Md Shamsuzzaman, Mohammad Baku Billah and Md Rumanuzzaman.
Bangladeshi diplomats stationed in India also participated in the discussions.
The Indian side was led by Sharad Chandra alongside senior officials from India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Irrigation Department of the West Bengal government.
In a brief post on its official Facebook page after the meeting, the Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission did not mention any outcome or breakthrough from the discussions.
The post only confirmed that the 90th regular meeting regarding the implementation of the 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty had been held in Kolkata on 22 May and that the joint committee had earlier conducted flow measurement activities and site visits at Farakka Barrage and the feeder canal on 21 May.
Talking to The New Nation on Saturday, JRC Director Md Abu Syed described the meeting as a routine one, saying they had only reviewed whether the existing treaty was being properly implemented.
“We only reviewed whether the existing treaty is being implemented properly,” he said adding that “There was no other discussion. Any news outside is not correct.”
One Indian media outlet reported that Bangladesh formally proposed changes to the existing framework during the discussions, arguing that future calculations should take into account upstream withdrawals across the Ganga basin rather than relying solely on measurements taken at Farakka.
Officials in Dhaka believe that depending exclusively on Farakka-based measurements does not fully reflect the impact of upstream diversion on downstream water availability in Bangladesh during the dry season.
The issue is particularly sensitive for Bangladesh because of growing concern over declining dry-season flow in the Padma River and the resulting environmental and economic impact in the country’s south-western region.
Environmentalists in Bangladesh have repeatedly warned that reduced freshwater flow has accelerated salinity intrusion in coastal districts and parts of the Sundarbans, threatening agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and river navigability.
Under the current treaty signed in 1996, if the water flow at Farakka falls below 70,000 cusecs, both parties would share the water equally. When flow exceeds 75,000 cusecs, India receives 40,000 cusecs and Bangladesh gets the remainder.
Diplomatic observers believe the issue has now evolved beyond a technical discussion on water allocation and has become an important political and strategic issue in Bangladesh-India relations.
The future of the treaty is being closely watched in both countries because it directly affects river navigation, agriculture, border-region water management, erosion along riverbanks in West Bengal and dry-season flow in the Padma basin inside Bangladesh.
For Bangladesh, ensuring adequate dry-season flow has become increasingly important as the government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman moves forward with plans for the proposed Padma Barrage project aimed at improving water retention, irrigation and ecological stability.
Although the Kolkata meeting ended without any public announcement, officials said that discussions between the two countries would continue in the coming months, with another round of talks expected to take place in Dhaka later this year.
