Bangladesh’s main governing party has placed the renewal of the Ganges water-sharing agreement at the centre of future relations with New Delhi, urging talks on a fresh arrangement well before the 30-year treaty expires in December 2026.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Dhaka expected a new pact that reflected the country’s water needs, public expectations and long-term security concerns. Speaking at an event in Dhaka, he said: “We want to send a clear message to the Indian government that a new treaty must be finalised through discussions in line with the expectations of the people of Bangladesh.”
His comments have sharpened attention on one of the most sensitive issues in Bangladesh-India diplomacy. The 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, signed on 12 December that year, governs the distribution of dry-season flows at Farakka between 1 January and 31 May. It was negotiated to address decades of dispute over upstream diversion at the Farakka Barrage and its impact on Bangladesh’s southwest, where lower flows have been linked to salinity intrusion, navigability problems, ecological stress and pressure on agriculture.
Fakhrul said uncertainty over renewal had created concern in Bangladesh and argued that any future agreement should not be a short-term arrangement. The BNP position is that the existing treaty should remain operative until a replacement is agreed, and that any new framework must avoid another fixed-term expiry that could return both countries to the same diplomatic pressure point.
The timing is significant. Dhaka has moved forward with the first phase of the Padma Barrage project, a large water-management scheme aimed at storing water inside Bangladesh, improving dry-season availability, reducing salinity and supporting irrigation, navigation and ecological restoration. The project has been presented by Bangladesh officials as a national measure to offset the impact of reduced Ganges flows downstream of Farakka, although Dhaka has also maintained that work on the barrage is not a substitute for a negotiated treaty.
The current treaty allocates Ganges flows at Farakka in 10-day periods during the lean season. When availability is 70,000 cusecs or less, the flow is shared equally. When availability is between 70,000 and 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh is guaranteed 35,000 cusecs. When availability is 75,000 cusecs or more, India receives 40,000 cusecs and Bangladesh receives the balance, with both sides receiving guaranteed 35,000 cusecs in alternate three 10-day periods between 11 March and 10 May.
Bangladesh’s concerns are shaped by geography as much as politics. The Ganges enters Bangladesh as the Padma and feeds a vast river system that supports farming, fisheries, inland navigation and the Sundarbans ecosystem. Dry-season flows are crucial for flushing salinity from coastal districts, maintaining freshwater supply and sustaining livelihoods across large parts of the southwest. Climate stress, shifting rainfall patterns and growing water demand have made the renewal debate more complex than the negotiations of the 1990s.
India, for its part, has strategic and domestic considerations. Farakka was built to divert water into the Hooghly system to support Kolkata port, and any renegotiation involves hydrology, river engineering, West Bengal’s interests and broader bilateral relations. New Delhi has maintained that water issues with Dhaka should be handled through established bilateral mechanisms, including technical discussions and the Joint Rivers Commission framework.
The Ganges question also sits beside the unresolved Teesta water-sharing issue, which has remained a persistent irritant in relations. Bangladesh has long sought a Teesta deal to secure more predictable dry-season water flows for its northern districts. Failure to complete that agreement has reinforced public scepticism in Dhaka about whether India will make binding commitments on shared rivers.
Fakhrul’s remarks reflect a wider shift in Bangladesh’s domestic debate, where water security is increasingly being framed as a test of sovereignty, climate resilience and equitable regional cooperation. The BNP has sought to link treaty renewal with public expectations, while also presenting the Padma Barrage as part of a broader strategy to strengthen Bangladesh’s bargaining position.
