Will consider Bihar’s concerns before Ganga treaty renewal, says Jaishankar
The Ministry of External Affairs responded in writing to a Rajya Sabha/Lok Sabha member's representation flagging that the 1996 India-Bangladesh Ganga Waters Treaty has "negatively impacted" Bihar, assuring that Bihar's water concerns will be factored in before any renewal decision.
The representation followed a meeting involving the Union Finance Ministry, the Ministry of External Affairs, and the Bihar Chief Minister, at which concerns over declining groundwater levels, drinking water shortages, and upstream flooding/siltation linked to the Farakka Barrage were raised.
The treaty, which governs sharing of lean-season Ganga flows between India and Bangladesh at the Farakka Barrage, was signed for a 30-year term on 12 December 1996 and is due to lapse around the end of 2026.
The Ministry indicated that any renewal or renegotiation process would take into account the interests of riparian states, consistent with the constitutional requirement to consult states before India commits to international water-sharing obligations.
The 1996 India-Bangladesh Ganga Waters Treaty
The Treaty on Sharing of the Ganga/Ganges Waters at Farakka was signed on 12 December 1996 by Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda (India) and Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh), for a fixed 30-year term — making it due to lapse by December 2026. It replaced a series of shorter, ad hoc arrangements dating back to a first sharing agreement in 1977.
Key Details
- Governs sharing of the lean-season flow (1 January to 31 May) measured at the Farakka Barrage, in ten-day periods.
- Sharing formula: if the flow at Farakka is 70,000 cusecs or less, India and Bangladesh split it 50:50; between 70,000 and 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh is guaranteed 35,000 cusecs with the remainder to India; above 75,000 cusecs, Bangladesh receives 40,000 cusecs (India gets the balance) — a formula skewed to protect Bangladesh's minimum share during lean flow.
- Implementation is monitored by a bilateral Joint Committee of officials from both countries.
- No automatic renewal clause — expiry requires a fresh negotiated treaty or extension, making the 2026 deadline a live diplomatic issue.
Bihar's grievance is that Farakka's operation (raising upstream water levels to flush the barrage's feeder canal) contributes to riverbed siltation and backwater flooding in Bihar districts along the Ganga, which the state argues was never adequately weighed when the treaty was negotiated.
Farakka Barrage
Farakka Barrage is a diversion structure across the Ganga in West Bengal, built between 1961 and completed in 1975, designed to divert Ganga water into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system via a 38-km feeder canal, flushing silt to keep the Kolkata (Haldia) port navigable.
The barrage is the physical point at which the treaty's sharing formula is applied — any renegotiation of shares directly determines both Bangladesh's dry-season flow and the volume regulated upstream in Bihar.
Centre-State Consultation on International Water Treaties
Water is a State subject under Entry 17 of the State List (List II, Seventh Schedule), subject to Parliament's overriding power under Entry 56 of the Union List for inter-State rivers "in the public interest." Treaty-making itself is a Union subject (Entry 14, Union List), and under Article 253 Parliament may legislate to implement any international treaty even on subjects otherwise in the State List — creating friction when treaty terms affecting a state's water share are negotiated without formal state concurrence.
Key Details
- Article 253 empowers Parliament to give domestic legal effect to treaties on any subject, overriding the usual Centre-State division of legislative powers.
- Article 262 allows Parliament to provide for adjudication of inter-State river water disputes and to bar the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over such disputes — the framework used domestically (e.g., the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956), distinct from treaty-making with foreign states.
- International river treaties (like the Ganga Waters Treaty) fall outside the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act framework since a foreign country is a party, leaving riparian-state consultation a political/administrative practice rather than a binding constitutional procedure.
Bihar's demand for its concerns to be "considered" before renewal reflects this structural gap — states affected by an international river treaty have no guaranteed constitutional seat at the negotiating table, unlike in domestic inter-State water disputes.
- Treaty signed: 12 December 1996; term: 30 years; due to lapse around December 2026.
- Farakka Barrage commissioned: 21 April 1975; length ~2.24 km; 109 gates; diverts up to 40,000 cusecs to the Hooghly.
- Sharing formula tiers: ≤70,000 cusecs (50:50); 70,000–75,000 cusecs (Bangladesh fixed at 35,000); >75,000 cusecs (Bangladesh fixed at 40,000).
- The Ganga enters Bangladesh (as the Padma) after Farakka, eventually joining the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and Meghna before draining into the Bay of Bengal.