page_title: Sharing the water of the Ganges
section_title: 1996 Treaty
hierarchical_section_title: Sharing the water of the Ganges / 1996 Treaty
caption_attribution_description: The Ganges River Delta (fig. 5) is the largest inter-tidal delta in the world. With its extensive mangrove mud flats, swamp vegetation and sand dunes, it is characteristic of many tropical and subtropical coasts. The vegetation cushions the shoreline from wind and wave action while the mangrove trees provide a habitat and food for aquatic and terrestrial plant and animal life. The increasing demand for lumber and firewood is outpacing the natural re-growth of the mangrove trees. Space Shuttle photographs, taken over time, permit monitoring of environmental changes in the delta caused by population pressures, and allows mapping of geological changes caused by shifting distributaries and delta growth. As seen in this photograph, the tributaries and distributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers deposit huge amounts of silt and clay that create a shifting maze of waterways and islands in the Bay of Bengal. Українська: Супутниковий знімок мангрових лісів Сундарбану в дельті Гангу, 6 листопада 1994 року.
context_page_description: Sharing the water of the Ganges between India and Bangladesh is a long-standing issue over the appropriate allocation, and development, of the water resources of the Ganges River, which flows from northern India into Bangladesh. The issue had remained a subject of conflict for almost 35 years, with several bilateral agreements and rounds of talks failing to produce results.
  However, a comprehensive bilateral treaty was signed by Indian Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed on 12 December 1996 in the Indian capital New Delhi. The treaty established a 30-year water-sharing arrangement and recognised Bangladesh's rights as a lower-level riparian.
context_section_description: The formation of an Awami League government in 1996 under Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujib, led to a fresh thaw in relations and negotiations restarted.  Both countries leaders met in the Indian capital on 12 December 1996 and signed a 30-year, comprehensive treaty.
  As per the 1996 treaty for sharing the Ganges waters at Farakka , the division is as follows:
  Both nations were able to co-operate in harnessing the water resources; the treaty also permits the construction of barrages and irrigation projects in Kushtia and the Gorai-Madhumati River in Bangladesh, draining the south-western districts and thus preserving the environment, natural and economic resources.
caption: The Ganges Delta spanning India and Bangladesh.
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