Imbued with the spirit of this year’s World Water Day theme, ‘Water for Peace’, Bangladesh continues to pursue its long-adhered policy of harnessing the water resources of common rivers with co-riparian countries through basin-wide water management.
Bangladesh shares 54 transboundary rivers with India, but they currently have just one long-term water-sharing agreement between them on the Ganges. The two South Asian neighbours are now in talks to conclude water sharing arrangements on more common rivers, i.e., Teesta, Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, and Kushiyara.
At the last meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC), which took place in Delhi in 2022 after a lapse of 12 years, both Bangladesh and India agreed to take up some more common rivers into focus for exchange of data and information towards the preparation of the draft framework of the interim water sharing agreement. At that 38th JRC meeting, the Bangladeshi side also requested the conclusion of the long-pending Teesta Water Sharing Treaty at an early date. The Indian side assured of their utmost efforts in concluding the agreement.
On the eve of today’s World Water Day, United Nations Water (UN-Water) stated that transboundary waters account for 60% of the world’s freshwater flows.
The Geneva-based UN-Water, an interagency mechanism that coordinates the efforts of United Nations entities and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues, further notes that though 153 countries have territory within at least one of the 310 transboundary river and lake basins in the world, only 24 countries have all of their transboundary basins covered by cooperation arrangements.
UN-Water says: “Water can create peace or spark conflict. When water is scarce or polluted, or when people are unequal or have no access to water, tensions can rise between communities and countries.
“More than 3 billion people worldwide depend on water that crosses national borders. Yet, only 24 countries have cooperation agreements for all their shared water.”
It says that as climate change impacts increase and populations grow, there is an urgent need, within and between countries, to unite around protecting and conserving the world’s most precious resource, water.
UN-Water remarks: “We must act upon the realization that water is not only a resource to be used and competed over – it is a human right, intrinsic to every aspect of life.”
Basin-wide cooperation
Bangladesh is the lowermost riparian country of the three mighty Himalayan rivers, namely the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. Of the 57 transboundary rivers Bangladesh is part of, 54 are common with India, and three are common with Myanmar. In fact, 51 rivers common between Bangladesh and India are within the catchment of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. The catchment area of these three mighty rivers is about 1.72 million sq km, of which only 7% lies in Bangladesh.
About 80% of annual water availability occurs during monsoons. As a result, Bangladesh suffers from the devastation of floods during monsoons and faces a scarcity of water during the dry season. Sustainable planning and development of water resources in Bangladesh virtually depend on the equitable sharing and management of the transboundary rivers.
As a lowermost riparian country, Bangladesh alone cannot manage the water of transboundary rivers, and that is why it has long been pursuing the establishment of a joint body in the form of a “River Basin Organization” comprising representatives of co-riparian countries using the framework of the water convention for improvement of transboundary cooperation at the basin level.
Prof Dr Mujibur Rahman, a former head of Buet’s Civil Engineering Department, said: “We all have a role to play in ensuring sustainable water management. Locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally, we must act with due diligence for a sustainable water future.”
Bangladesh is faring poorly in wastewater discharge
Bangladesh fares poorly when it comes to discharging wastewater.
According to UN-Water, the proportion of wastewater flow safely treated is only 18% in Bangladesh, compared to 21% in India, 38% in Pakistan, 40% in Bhutan, and 41% in Nepal.
Prof Dr Mujibur Rahman said over 80% of domestic wastewater is discharged untreated in Bangladesh.
Over the last two decades, the amount of water and sanitation-related official development assistance received by Bangladesh has seen a good rise, from around $100 million in 2000 to $284 million in 2021.
Did we know?
Some 2.2 billion people still live without safely managed drinking water, including 115 million people who drink surface water.
Roughly half of the world’s population experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
Water-related disasters have dominated the list of tragic occurrences over the past 50 years and account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters.