Following a two-day visit to Farakka, the point from which the Ganga bifurcates and flows into Bangladesh as the Padma river and in West Bengal as the Hooghly, the Bangladesh team of technical experts started a meeting with the Indian counterparts in Kolkata on Thursday.
This is part of the series of interactions between the technical teams of the Joint Rivers Commission of India and Bangladesh on the Ganga Water Treaty, which is due for renewal in 2026, an official said.
As reported earlier, the Bangladeshi delegation of the Joint Rivers Commission reached Kolkata on Monday morning and immediately left for the joint observation site on the Ganges at Farakka.
Members of the commission were in Farakka till March 5.
The Bangladesh delegation visited the Farakka Barrage to assess the flow of Ganges water and its downstream movement into Bangladesh. The timing of this visit is critical because the Ganges river experiences a lean flow of water between January and May.
After the visit, Hossen remarked that the water flow in January was “good” but it “decreased” in February.
He noted that water-sharing is being conducted according to the 1996 treaty between India and Bangladesh.
At Farakka, the two sides reportedly exchanged data about the Ganges water flow over the past five months.
“The meeting between the Indian and Bangladeshi technical teams began this morning. The Bangladesh delegation is led by Muhammad Abul Hossen, a member of the joint rivers commission,” said a senior official.
