India,Bangla set to sign Teesta water sharing pact

“The agreement,once signed,will be in force for 15 years,” said a senior Water Resources Ministry official.

India and Bangladesh had exchanged a draft statement on principles of sharing of the Teesta water during a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC),comprising Water Resources Ministers of both countries,in March last year.

The meeting of the JRC after a gap of over four years took place after Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India in January 2010. Hasina is learnt to have taken up the issue with PM Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit last April.

Sharing of the Teesta river water has been a contentious issue between India and Bangladesh. While a large irrigation project in West Bengal has been stuck for many years because of this,in Bangladesh it’s a domestic political issue because of apprehensions of an adverse impact on irrigation downstream.

The agreement worked out by both sides reportedly takes care of both the viability of irrigation projects in West Bengal as well as Bangladesh’s water needs.