IRL Project to help Teesta Agreement

                                                                                                                                                                                

TEESTA AND INTER-LINKING RIVERS

Wednesday, 12 August 2015

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 MS Menon | in Oped

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To facilitate an early Teesta accord, it is necessary to expedite and complete the Manas-Sankosh-Teesta-Ganga canal project, which can augment flows in the Teesta during the lean season. The Union Government has to act fast

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Bangladesh scripted a new chapter in India-Bangladesh relations. New Delhi and Dhaka should now move forward and find a solution to the most vexatious issue — the Teesta river issue, which has been under discussion since a long time.

It is unfortunate that this issue is stuck in the whirlpool of India’s internal hydro-politics. It has also raised some lingering doubts in our neighbourhood about our seriousness on the issue. Consensus building with West Bengal in this regard has been a complex and arduous task, thereby resulting in our failure to make any breakthrough in the proposed sharing agreement.

The Teesta river originates in Sikkim, flows past Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and then joins the Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh. It has a drainage area of 12,729 sq km, of which 83 per cent is situated in the Indian territory.

Presently, the river valley projects implemented in Sikkim are all hydro-projects that have no impact on the river flow. But the Gajoldoba barrage in West Bengal, situated about 90 km upstream of the international border with Bangladesh, envisages irrigation, water supply and also power generation.

Similarly, the Dalia barrage in Bangladesh, constructed 15 km downstream of the border, envisages irrigation and other benefits. During the non-monsoon period, between November to April, both experience shortage of water for irrigation.

Teesta is one of the 54 rivers that flow through the India-Bangladesh border. Of these, nine, including the Ganga and the Teesta river, are important, on which water-sharing issues between the two countries had cropped up. In 1996, the Ganga water-sharing agreement was signed, but discussions on others are still going on.

Since 1972, Bangladesh had been insisting on a 50 per cent share of Teesta waters to meet its requirements. However, after prolonged discussions, in 1983, an ‘understanding on an ad hoc sharing’ of Teesta river flows in lean season was reached between the two countries so as to help our neighbour get financial assistance for the construction of the Dalia barrage.

According to this ‘understanding’, of the dry season river flows, Bangladesh got 36 per cent of the share and India got 39 per cent while the remaining 25 per cent remained unallocated, pending further discussions.

Many factors have been considered by Delhi to arrive at a workable solution to the water-sharing issue. It was felt that since there is a likely regeneration of 25 per cent flows between the Indian and Bangladesh barrages across the Teesta, the additional 25 per cent sought by our neighbour during the lean season can be released by West Bengal.

However, the State Government was not willing to  release water from its barrage as it apprehended that a major project envisaging irrigation of 9.22 lakh hectare and power generation of 67.5 mw could be affected if this water is spared to Bangladesh.

West Bengal has its own reasons for not making any commitment to release water from its barrage. The main reason is the uncertainty of requisite quantum of river flows during the summer months. Hence, to make the Teesta water-sharing a reality, the only available alternative is to augment the river flows during the non-monsoon months.

In this connection, the Indian river-linking project offers an excellent opportunity to improve the Teesta river flows.

The Manas-Sankosh-Teesta-Ganga link canal is one of the major proposals under the Himalayan component of the IRL project. It envisages diversion of the surplus waters from the rivers like Manas and Sankosh (tributaries of the Brahmaputra river), to Ganga and beyond upto Mahanadi and thereafter towards south to meet the requirement of water short areas.

By incorporating the necessary provisions in the canal structures, it is possible to release from the MSTG canal, the requisite waters into the Teesta at a point upstream of the Gajoldoba barrage during the lean season to augment the river flows.

In such a situation, West Bengal will be able to release the needed flows downstream to fulfil the water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been raising objections against India’s IRL project, pointing out that the project will affect the water availability downstream in their rivers. Since, in addition to Teesta, the MSTG link canal can also augment the river flows in the Ganga in a similar way, it is possible to convince our neighbour that the Teesta project, when implemented, can be a win-win situation for both the countries.

In view of these facts, to facilitate an early Teesta accord, it is necessary to expedite and complete the MSTG canal project which can augment flows in the Teesta during the lean season. The Government of India has to act fast in this regard. 

(The writer is a former Member Secretary, Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Central Water Commission)