Bangladesh stands on the sting of financial and social transformation, whereas India is experiencing a singular diplomatic alternative that might reshape its management function in South Asia. Because the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, unresolved disputes over water-sharing and geopolitical tensions have impacted India’s relationships with its neighbouring international locations. At the moment, with the arrival of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus on the centre of Bangladesh’s interim authorities, a historic alternative for progress has arisen — the long-awaited answer to the Teesta River Water Sharing dispute.
This settlement might maybe restore the unsynced communications between the 2 international locations, speed up a brand new tradition of regional collaboration on commerce, local weather resilience, and meals safety – instantly enhancing the livelihoods of greater than 30 million folks in each the international locations. Amongst these populations, the Teesta’s significance is most deeply felt within the lives of the folks of North Bengal, the place I come from.
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The Teesta river basin is densely populated, out of the 30 million folks, 2% are situated in Sikkim, 27% are situated in West Bengal’s North Bengal and 71% in Bangladesh’s North Bengal. Within the villages of North Bengal, on either side of the border, life ebbs and flows with the rhythm of the Teesta river. When the water ranges within the Teesta fall throughout the dry season, hope fades alongside it. Farmers watch their crops shrivel; and households battle, whereas discovering it more and more troublesome to satisfy their fundamental wants. After the emergence of Yunus as the top of the interim authorities in Bangladesh, the Teesta dispute can not simply be thought-about a coverage matter; it holds the important thing to reshaping Bangladesh-India relations, whereas re-structuring the socio-political dynamics of South Asia, with the potential to remodel thousands and thousands of lives who rely upon Teesta for his or her agricultural and irrigation wants.
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Urgency for diplomatic decision
The struggles of North Bengal’s farmers underscore the urgency for a diplomatic decision, and on this context, Modi’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ coverage, which goals to speed up India’s function in regional management, whereas Yunus, together with his international popularity for moral management, is uniquely positioned to construct bridges throughout the lengthy standing political divides which have diminished our subcontinent’s true potential. This chance carries financial weight as properly. Bangladesh occurs to be India’s most essential buying and selling associate in South Asia, exceeding $18 billion in annual commerce.
For Modi, a everlasting decision of the Teesta dispute would re-categorise India’s place as a dependable associate in South Asia, unlock new avenues for regional integration; whereas additionally exhibiting to the remainder of the world that India stands by its closest pals in moments of want. For Yunus, securing Bangladesh’s water rights goes past politics — it’s about restoring hope and belief for thousands and thousands of farmers whose lives rely upon it, giving them a preventing likelihood for a greater future, and laying the groundwork for strengthening the foundations of Bangladesh’s agricultural financial system which future governments can work on.
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What occurred in 2011?
With political will, collaboration, and compromise, Modi and Yunus stand at the opportunity of turning the Teesta from a supply of battle right into a dwelling embodiment of cooperation. In 2011, each Bangladesh and India have been nearly on the verge of discovering a decision to the Teesta dispute. However issues hit a roadblock when West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, opposed a draft treaty that proposed allocating 37.5% of the Teesta’s water to Bangladesh throughout the dry season.
A core precept linked to the Teesta dispute is discovered inside Article 7 of the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Conference, which focuses cooperation and knowledge sharing between riparian states.
The 2004 Berlin Guidelines on Water Assets reiterates the obligations of higher riparian states like India in managing water assets in such a method that avoids harming decrease riparian nations like Bangladesh, and that is particularly essential within the context of Teesta, as North Bengal’s financial survival, significantly its reliance on irrigation, farming, and livelihoods, is determined by the river’s circulate.
What Mamata Banerjee stated
Mamata Banerjee’s core argument – Teesta’s water is the one supply to extend the world beneath irrigation in West Bengal’s North Bengal, the minimal water circulate into West Bengal throughout the winter months understandably fuels hesitation, whereas Teesta is the lifeblood of northern West Bengal’s farmers, who depend on it to maintain their crops thriving and their households fed. However that actuality doesn’t diminish the desperation felt by Bangladeshi farmers, whose fields run dry as a consequence – over-complicating the far-reaching regional wants that decision for an answer which is equitable, unexpectedly casting a shadow over the lives of the 21 million farmers throughout the border. Mamata Banerjee faces the troublesome job of defending the way forward for West Bengal’s agricultural sector, all whereas steering by the political tightrope with New Delhi.
Water is a state topic in India, however the Indian parliament can craft a legislation beneath Article 253 of the Indian structure to present authorized standing to the Teesta water sharing settlement.
Up to now, Bangladesh had been in talks with China, discussing an approximate $1 billion proposal, for a complete administration and restoration venture on Teesta, with the core goal of managing the river basin effectively to regulate floods and to deal with the deep water disaster throughout summers. These discussions occurred at a time when India was more and more involved about China’s rising affect within the subcontinent, including one other layer of complexity to the already tense water-sharing negotiations.
Nonetheless, at this second, beneath Yunus’s management, Bangladesh is looking for to have fun good relations with India and its neighbours, with Yunus stressing that these relationships should be based mostly on “equity and equality.”
The Indian dams on the Teesta launch extra water throughout monsoon, and the upstream circulate of water in direction of Bangladesh floods its North Bengal, and that additionally impacts Bangladesh – folks discover it troublesome to bear the bills of the very fundamental wants, youngsters’s schooling, and not to mention with out cash, folks can solely count on sorrows and sufferings. The Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Fee (JRC), has constantly advocated in direction of collaborative efforts that harness the advantages of the peoples in each the international locations – thus, a trans-boundary river, Teesta calls for hyper-focus.
The decision of the Teesta dispute centres on establishing a everlasting and truthful water-sharing settlement between India and Bangladesh, which considers seasonal flows and the variabilities of the river, within the settlement’s entirety. It should be grounded in dependable knowledge that mirror seasonal differences, making certain an equitable distribution of water throughout dry intervals. Throughout the Teesta, putting in flood-control mechanisms, comparable to superior flood gates or dam controls, which might be modelled from the Rhine River in Europe, might probably forestall downstream flooding in Bangladesh’s North Bengal. The actualisation of those initiatives ought to transcend past political cycles, and mirror long-term cooperation moderately than specializing in short-term political expediency.
Attaining these aims largely is determined by whether or not each nations can collaborate on joint infrastructure tasks, particularly focusing in direction of synthetic reservoirs which have the capability to retailer extra monsoon water for the drier months. This isn’t merely a technical treatment; it displays a real dedication between the 2 international locations, signalling to the peoples of each India and Bangladesh, that their futures are interconnected, whereas enabling the governments of the 2 nations to exhibit their dedication
in direction of discovering lasting options. On this method, everybody would have a vested curiosity within the end result.
Nonetheless, infrastructures won’t minimize it. A sophisticated JRC, which is well-equipped with subtle monitoring capabilities would speed up clear collaboration frameworks, whereas real-time progressions on water ranges and dam operations would allow each the international locations to forecast and analyse the depth of shortages and surpluses, serving to in efficient planning in direction of catering agricultural actions and hydropower technology. Establishing a proper, joint river basin authority between India and Bangladesh, that’s modelled based mostly on the Mekong River Fee between Southeast Asian international locations, might additionally assist in managing the Teesta’s water circulate.
India and Bangladesh must also stay up for channelling climate-resilient agriculture to deal with the losses because of the climatic variables throughout Teesta – investments into the event and implementation of drought-resistant crops and use of superior irrigation strategies comparable to drip irrigation, tremendously improve water effectivity. Hyper-focusing on the native contexts is essential — North Bengal, on either side of the border, shares deep socio-cultural synergies, and when native communities participate in managing assets collectively, they naturally take possession of their success. Finally, the core goal ought to be to scale back the dependency on the Teesta’s pure circulate whereas sustaining agricultural productiveness.
The Teesta problem is a deeply emotive one, and the decrease riparian, Bangladesh, is very depending on India, the higher riparian, for protecting minimal flows within the Teesta river. A everlasting decision not simply serves as a sensible necessity, however moderately a deeply symbolic act, intertwined within the shared historical past and destinies of each nations. India, the higher riparian, ought to exhibit better broadness and imaginative and prescient. For each Bangladesh and India, the general advantages of cooperation go far past water administration — they embrace scopes of paradigm shifts in regional relations, financial upliftment, and a renewed belief in South Asian diplomacy. For India, this isn’t nearly fulfilling an previous promise — it will strengthen people-to-people relationships and have fun socio-cultural synergies. India can certainly turn out to be Bangladesh’s everlasting pal, however as Tajuddin Ahmad, the primary Prime Minister of Bangladesh, rightly stated, this friendship should be constructed on mutual respect and equality: “Solely as equals.”
(Nazmus Sakib Khan is a Bangladeshi economist and worldwide relations fanatic. The views expressed are private.)
