Go beyond bilateral water deals
Bangladesh and India need to move beyond conventional water-sharing arrangements and adopt a basin-wide approach to govern their common rivers, with greater transparency, scientific cooperation and regional participation, said former Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) chairman Dr Manzur Ahmed Chowdhury.
He made the remarks at a session titled “Water, River and Regional Diplomacy” at the Bay of Bengal Conversation 2026 in Dhaka on Monday, stressing that effective water governance should focus not only on the distribution of river water but also on ensuring long-term water security across the entire basin.
“Bangladesh has legitimate concerns about upstream withdrawals, diversions and dry-season flows,” Manzur said.
“We recognise that India has its own requirements for agriculture, drinking water, energy and development.
Unfortunately, India does not consider our need for water during the dry season. Excessive upstream water withdrawal is a great concern for Bangladesh,” he said.
However, he argued that water diplomacy should not remain confined to negotiations over how much water Bangladesh and India receive.
“We need to ask – how can the entire river basin become more water secure?” he said.
Manzur called for Bangladesh and India to move beyond simply sharing water and instead strengthen the sharing of knowledge and information needed to manage their common river systems more effectively.
He stressed the need for greater transparency in river-flow data, improved flood forecasting and stronger cooperation on rainfall, sediment, groundwater and water quality.
The two countries should also conduct joint scientific assessments of how climate change is affecting their shared rivers, he said.
“Most importantly, we must think in terms of river basins rather than political boundaries. Political boundaries can divide countries, but they cannot divide a river system,” Manzur said.
He said Nepal and other countries linked to the wider river system should also be brought into regional water diplomacy, arguing that the management of shared rivers cannot be addressed effectively through bilateral arrangements alone.
“Therefore, our future water diplomacy needs to become basin-wide and multilateral, supported by diplomats, hydrologists, ecologists, river scientists and international water law experts,” he said.
Manzur also called for future water agreements to be made climate-resilient, warning that rainfall patterns are becoming less predictable while floods and droughts are becoming more extreme.
He pointed to rapid changes in the Himalayas and rising salinity in coastal Bangladesh as additional challenges that need to be incorporated into future regional water management.
A basin-wide approach, he said, would enable countries sharing river systems to address water security collectively, rather than treating rivers solely as issues of bilateral diplomacy.
