The International Farakka Committee (IFC) has urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to pursue Teesta water sharing and renewal of Ganges treaty earnestly with guarantees and arbitration clauses during her upcoming talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a statement issued on Saturday, IFC, which campaigns for Bangladesh’s fair share of water from the trans-boundary rivers with India, said that the Kushiara River’s water sharing is not a priority for Bangladesh, and its inclusion in JRC talks indicates the eagerness of the Indian side to divert attention from the Teesta issue.

Before signing the proposed MOU on the Kushiara, Bangladesh should ask for the long-awaited treaty on the Teesta to be signed, they said.

Also read: Surma, Kushiara rivers to be dredged to restore navigability: FM

IFC leaders said since abandoning the Tipaimukh Dam project at the instance of India's central Forest Advisory Committee for over half a decade, India has refrained from any interventions on the Barak river system from where two tributaries, the Surma and the Kushiara, flow into the Meghna in Bangladesh.

Out of 54 common rivers that flow into Bangladesh from India, 52 have already been embanked.

Intervention on the Kushiara would adversely affect Bangladesh's third largest river, the Meghna, and the haors of the greater Sylhet area, the IFC said as a note of caution.

For Bangladesh, the most burning issue is Teesta water which has been entirely diverted from the Gazal Doba barrage in West Bengal for about two decades, rendering the Bangladesh part of the river completely dry in violation of international law and practice, with adverse environmental consequences for 3 crore Bangladeshis living in its basin.

The 30-year Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, which will end in 2026, on the other hand has not ensured the availability of adequate water to Bangladesh. The treaty needs to be updated with guarantees and arbitration clauses that India has in its water treaties with Nepal and Pakistan, the IFC leaders said.

They said Bangladesh should pursue integrated basin-wide management of common rivers to keep the natural systems alive instead of artificially dividing those at man-made political borders. When dams and embankments on rivers are being demolished in the rest of the world, these cannot be built afresh on our common rivers.

Also read: Implement Teesta management and restoration master plan: IFC

The signatories to the statement are: Atiqur Rahman Salu, Chairman and Sayed Tipu Sultan, Secretary General, IFC New York, Prof. Jasim Uddin Ahmad, President, Dr. SI Khan, Senior Vice President, Syed Erfanul Bari, IFC Bangladesh; and Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Convener IFC.