The Bangladesh and India Joint River Commission’s (JRC) meeting, which was scheduled for today for updating data on six common rivers, has been postponed. The meeting postponed led to the delay of the exchange of data on rivers which was last done 34 years ago. These rivers which were supposed to be discussed were Muhuri, Monu, Dharla, Khowai, Gumti, and Dudhkumar.
The meeting was scheduled to be occurring in Delhi, The Daily Star says in its report “The meeting is cancelled as we could not get the government order on it. We will re-fix a new date for the meeting later,” KM Anwar Hossain, a JRC member, said. According to the daily, Bangladesh postponed the talks.
The JRC was formed jointly by India and Bangladesh to resolve the conflicts that arose from the sharing process of water belonging to transboundary rivers. India and Bangladesh have 54 common rivers. Previously the two sides met last time in August where they decided to meet again on December 18 to exchange updated data on six common rivers and discuss the framework for water-sharing.
The two countries first discussed the exchanging process of water in the year 1985. The two countries seem to have only one relevant treaty signed in 1996 which oversees the sharing of water of the Ganges river.
Since then, the neighbors have discussed the issue of sharing water from the six rivers mentioned, but could not reach any consensus.
