India and Bangladesh must not just renew Ganga Water Treaty. They should reimagine it

Water diplomacy cannot be separated from internal diplomacy efforts, both in India and Bangladesh. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar) As the 30-year term of the 1996 Ganga Water Treaty between India and Bangladesh approaches its conclusion, discussions about its future are gathering momentum. Much of the public debate is about whether the treaty will be renewed or revised. But a more consequential question is, what kind of agreement will it be? The political, institutional and ecological conditions that produced the 1996 treaty are vastly different. The negotiations are likely to be about much more than water sharing at Farakka. The 1996 treaty had a single-point agenda of water sharing, following India’s decision to build the Farakka barrage. The treaty provided a flow-dependent water-sharing