As the Ganga treaty nears expiry, renewed concerns over water sharing arise

As the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty with Bangladesh nears renewal, Bihar wants to resolve its demand for a fixed share of Ganga water during the lean period first.
Experts do not buy Bihar’s claim that the treaty burdens the state. They say the real issue is siltation caused by the Farakka barrage.
Experts suggest Bihar made a stakeholder and that its concerns over water availability, siltation and erosion can be addressed through a basin-wide approach.

As the Ganga water-sharing treaty between India and Bangladesh ends this year, Bihar seeks to resolve its long-standing demands before the treaty is renewed.

The treaty, signed in December 1996, governs the sharing of the Ganga river’s water between upstream India and downstream Bangladesh, particularly during the lean season when river flows are low.

Under the treaty, during the lean period from January to June, if water at the Farakka barrage is less than 70,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs), India and Bangladesh each get half. If the water at the barrage is between 70,000 and 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh will be assured 35,000 cusecs, and the rest will go to India. If the water is 75,000 cusecs or more, India will get an assured 40,000 cusecs, and Bangladesh will get the rest.

The agreement further says Bangladesh will get a guaranteed flow of 35,000 cusecs on the first and last ten days of April and 27,633 cusecs between April 11 and 20. If the Ganga’s flow falls below 50,000 cusecs in any ten-day period, the two governments will enter immediate consultations to make emergency adjustments.

For decades, Bihar’s political leaders have argued that the Ganga water-sharing treaty with Bangladesh does not adequately account for the state’s water needs.

Sanjay Jha, a member of parliament from Bihar’s ruling party Janata Dal United, said on August 6 during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha that renewing the treaty without adequately incorporating Bihar’s long-term water security, development needs, and water resource requirements would harm the state’s broader interests.

He further said that adequate availability of Ganga water is essential for Bihar’s agriculture, drinking water supply, industrial development and long-term water security, all of which depend on the Ganga basin.

As the Ganga treaty nears expiry, renewed concerns over water sharing arise — People assemble at Ganga ghat in Patna, Bihar. Image by Afzal Adeeb Khan.

Bihar government’s claim

Citing the data of second Bihar State Irrigation Commission report, prepared in 1994, two years before the Ganga water-sharing treaty was signed, Bihar government said in 1997 that the state has only about 16% of the Ganga’s total catchment area. Still, the state has to provide half of the water the Farakka Barrage needs during the lean period, and it gets this water from the Ganga’s tributaries that flow through the state.

Around a dozen rivers in Bihar join the Ganga, according to the Bihar disaster management department.

In December 2017, the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation had organised the Vision Ganga programme, where Rajiv Ranjan Singh, the then water resource minister of Bihar, now a Union Minister, had said that at the entry point of the Ganga river in Bihar near Buxar district, the flow is only 14,126 cusecs. But Bihar is burdened with the national duty to deliver a minimum of 52,972 cusecs of water through the Ganga at Farakka under the Indo-Bangladesh Treaty.

However, a Bihar State Pollution Control Board document states that the Ganga’s flow at Chausa in Buxar district, where it enters Bihar, falls to just 400 cusecs during the lean period from February to April. At Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, the average flow during the same period is approximately 1,600 cusecs, four times the figure recorded at Chausa.

He demanded that the Ganga Basin States share joint responsibility for providing water to the Ganga to meet India’s obligation to Bangladesh.

Nitish Kumar, the then chief minister of Bihar, demanded in a written message to the programme an urgent mechanism to ensure “the release of proportionate/sizable amount of water into Ganga from the upper basin states in lean seasons.”

The Bihar government in 1997 demanded that upstream states curb the indiscriminate use of Ganga river water and that the central government ensure riparian states’ share in the waters of the Ganga.

Experts agree with the demand for regional allocation of Ganga water. “There should be proper study on how much Ganga water Bihar needs till 2050 and accordingly the state should be allocated assured quantum of water, during lean periods. The state’s population is rising, so are water demands. So, Bihar needs more water,” said Sunil Kumar Chaudhary, a former professor at Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU). He has researched the ecology of the Ganga.

Construction along the riverbank in Bihar. Image by Afzal Adeeb Khan.

The ruling party in Bihar, JDU has been raising the issue and campaigning to raise public awareness of how the treaty and the Farakka Barrage affect the state. The state government has demanded 2,000 cusecs for drinking and industrial use during the lean period. But the internal committee set up to discuss the treaty renewal has recommended 900 cusecs for Bihar, as per the media reports.

Though Bihar’s water demand is increasing, experts do not accept claims that the treaty is affecting the state.

Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator at South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), said, “The claim that there is pressure on Bihar regarding minimum flow is solely made by the Bihar government; there is no evidence to support it.” “Secondly, Bihar possesses neither a dam nor any big storage facility where the state government could store Ganga water. Under these circumstances, the question of Bihar holding back or releasing Ganga water does not even arise,” Thakkar told Mongabay-India.

Currently, Bihar’s only Ganga-related project is the Ganga water supply scheme, inaugurated in 2022. Under this project, the Bihar government transports Ganga water via pipelines to storage tanks in Gaya and Rajgir for drinking purposes. However, Bihar is permitted to draw water from the Ganga only during the monsoon season, specifically from July to October.

Rajiv Sinha, professor at the Department of Earth Sciences in IIT Kanpur, said, “I do not think Bihar faces any water-related problem (due to the treaty). The real issue is sediment. Sediment chokes the water channels, causing the water to spread across the surface. If this were removed, there would be no problem,” Rajiv Sinha told Mongabay-India.

“The Farakka Barrage was constructed neither for irrigation nor for drinking water supply; it was built for navigation. A water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh was done following the construction of the Farakka Barrage. Therefore, the question of how much Ganga water Bihar is receiving does not arise here. In any case, Bihar is a flood-prone region; it receives water from numerous rivers, including the Kosi and the Gandak,” Sinha said.

A visual scale drawn on a pillar of a bridge in Patna, Bihar, to measure the water level of the Ganga. Image by Afzal Adeeb Khan.

Bihar’s concern

Construction of the 2,245 metres Farakka Barrage, located at Farakka in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, began in 1961 and took 14 years to complete in 1975. The main objective of the Farakka Barrage was to increase the navigation depth of the Bhagirathi-Hooghly waterway and preserve and maintain Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port (erstwhile Kolkata Port).

However, experts at the time of the Farakka Barrage’s construction had termed the project unnecessary. A study titled Management and Sharing of the Ganges, published in Natural Resources Journal, gives details of this account.

“In 1962, experts like A.T. Ippen and C.F. Wicker, after careful study of the Farakka Barrage project, concluded that the diversion of fresh water into the Hooghly river through construction of Farakka Barrage would not contribute to the solution but was likely to accentuate the serious shoaling problems in that river and to the preservation of the port of Calcutta,” the study has noted.

Researchers and experts say that the barrage has indeed impacted Bihar. “During my research in Bhagapur, I have seen that the upstream flow of the river has almost stopped and the Farakka barrage has a role in it. Due to the Farakka barrage, huge sediments have accumulated at both banks of the river, making it shallow,” Sunil Kumar Choudhary said.

“Sediment is not a bad thing. It is part of river hydrology. It has minerals and nutrients that support agriculture. But, for this, sediments should flow. This is not happening in Bihar,” he added.

The then Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, had roped in IIT Kanpur to conduct an evidence-based study on siltation in the Ganga. Rajiv Sinha, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at IIT Kanpur, studied the 580-kilometre stretch of the Ganga from Buxar to Farakka and submitted a four-volume report to the Bihar government in 2018. The study didn’t go public, but a brief of it was published in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, which clearly says that the Farakka barrage has impacted Bihar.

The study said that a large amount of silt started getting trapped upstream of the barrage, possibly soon after construction began in 1961.

It added that the Farakka barrage may have triggered siltation of 156 million tonnes (MT) of sediment annually.

This year, Ganga river and its tributaries have caused floods in many districts of Bihar, affecting lakhs of people. Image by Umesh Kumar Ray.

Sanjay Jha, in his parliamentary speech, said India should not renew the Ganga water-sharing treaty, but practically it is not possible, as the Ganga is a transboundary river.

“India’s relations with its neighbours are already strained, so you cannot annul the treaty. Since the river flows from the Indian side into Bangladesh, you cannot simply say that you will hold back all the water here and not let it flow downstream. Not renewing the treaty will have international consequences,” Sunil Kumar Chaudhary said. “So for me, the treaty should be modified, and regional demands should be accommodated. It must shift from a bilateral release model to an inclusive basin-wide management approach,” he added.

Rajiv Sinha said that Bihar should be made a stakeholder in the treaty. He told Mongabay-India, “Renewal of the Ganga Waters Sharing Treaty without considering Bihar’s concerns related to siltation, erosion and also water availability will be a foolish act. It is a good time for Bihar to be a stakeholder in this treaty.” Additionally, he emphasised on expanding the treaty beyond water sharing. “There should be a clause on silt management in the Ganga Waters Sharing Treaty. If it is included in the treaty, the government will be forced to work on silt management,” he said.

The experts said that Bihar’s concerns about sedimentation and water availability merit consideration, but they also said that Bihar could have done a few things on its own.

“In my study, I had given names of hotspots of sediment production and deposition and proposed to make strategies and techniques of sediment management as well as comprehensive plans to utilise the removed sediments. Bihar could have done this without any treaty,” Sinha said.

Banner image: The Ganga enters Bihar’s Buxar district and flows 445 km before entering West Bengal. Image by Afzal Adeeb Khan.