MANAGEMENT AND SHARING OF THE GANGES

The Ganges river, flows through the most populous areas of the northea stern and eastern parts of the south asian region. Its basin is spread over China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The flow of the Ganges is hi ghly seasonal. Floods during the monsoon seasons and scarcity of wafer during the dry seasons are the two extreme flow characteristics of th e Ganges. India and Bangladesh had been locked in a dispute over the s haring of dry season flows of the Ganges for more than 20 years. Discu ssions and negotiations between the Governments of Bangladesh and Indi a, have not provided a lasting solution to the problem fill 1995. It i s a tragedy that the people living in the Ganges basin area are still one of the poorest despite the basin's rich endowments. While so much could have been done, management and sharing of the water resources of the Ganges through positive riparian cooperation had been practically nil. A significant amount of the monsoon floods of the Ganges which c ause widespread damages to lives and properties in the co-basin countr ies could be conserved in the upstream storage sites to mitigate the f lood intensities downstream. The storage reservoirs would have augment ed the dry season flows of the Ganges and significantly satisfied the reasonable water needs of all concerned. In addition, generation of la rge amounts of hydropower from the storage dams could have eased the e nergy crisis in the basin area and created more job opportunities thro ugh facilitating vapid industrialization in different parts of the bas in. Instead of following the path of cooperation towards realization o f the bounties of the Ganges for the benefit of the millions, the gove rnments in the past became locked in controversies. Progress towards m utual cooperation had been impeded by mistrust, fears, misperceptions and myths. In 1996, new governments came to power through democratic p rocess in both India and Bangladesh. Sincere and intense efforts by bo th the new governments ultimately resulted in the signing of a thirty year treaty between Bangladesh and India on sharing of the Ganges wate rs at Farakka in December, 1996. The signing of this treaty removed th e major irritant and create a climate of trust and confidence congenia l for further cooperation. In the interest of all, the political and c onceptual problems need to be more purposefully addressed by all conce rned, specially as the underlying commonality of interests in the Gang es is overwhelming.