The Kushiyara Agreement

The Kushiyara Agreement

Context:

  • During Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, both the countries have signed a landmark water sharing agreement since the landmark Ganga Waters Treaty, 1996. 

About the Kushiyara river –

  • The Kushiyara River is a distributary river in Bangladesh and Assam, India. It forms on the India-Bangladesh border as a branch of the Barak River, when the Barak separates into the Kushiyara and Surma.

What is there in the agreement?

  • The lower parts of Assam and the Sylhet region in Bangladesh have witnessed floods recently.
  • So, this agreement comes at that point of time when there is requirement of cooperation between both the countries for flood control and irrigation of the areas.
  • Over the last century, the flow of the Barak River has changed in such a way that the bulk of the river’s water flows into Kushiyara while the rest goes into Surma.
  • Due to these fluctuations both sides during monsoon have abundant water source and during winters there is shortage of water.
  • There are various estimates about the area that will benefit from this supply but it is generally understood that approximately 10,000 hectares of land and millions of people will benefit from the water that will flow through a network of canals in Sylhet benefiting the farmers involved in Boro rice, which is basically the rice cultivated during the dry season of December to February and harvested in early summer.

Rahimpur Canal
  • The water of Kushiyara will be channelled through the Rahimpur Canal project in Sylhet. 
  • The eight km long canal is the only supplier of water from the Kushiyara to the region and Bangladesh has built a pump house and other facilities for withdrawal of water that can now be utilised.

 

Source The Hindu

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