Regional Cooperation on Water and Environment in the Ganges Basin: Bangladesh Perspectives

Abstract

Equitable sharing of common resources among all co-sharers is now a well-established principle. In the context of water resources, for example, clear and forceful codification of this principle is available in the Helsinki Rules (ILA, 1992) and the 30-year Ganges [Water-Sharing] Treaty between Bangladesh and India signed in December of 1996. Also, common resources are usually best developed and utilized for maximum possible mutual benefit under the cooperative arrangement among the co-sharers. Several studies (e.g. Ahmad et al., 1994; Adhikary et al., 2000; and Ahmad et al., 2001) have shown that the benefits derivable-in terms of, for example, irrigation, hydropower generation, flood mitigation, and freshwater supply to stem salinity ingress — from water resources development and utilization in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basins will be much larger, on a win-win basis for all, under a cooperative regime involving all co-riparians, compared to what may be possible under separate national approaches, pursued by the countries sharing the basins: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and China (Tibet). This study focuses on Bangladesh, India and Nepal, through which the Ganges River systems mostly flow, having originated in China (Tibet).