Transboundary Water Cooperation between Bangladesh and India in the Ganges River Basin: Exploring a Benefit-sharing Approach

Abstract: Bangladesh and India share 54 transboundary rivers. Despite that, the transboundary water management between these two countries is heavily concentrated on the Ganges river basin, in which, mode of cooperation is still based on physical sharing of water. The study is developed on the argument that Bangladesh and India need a shift of focus in their current mode of transboundary water management from physical sharing of water to sharing of benefits derived from the use (and non-use) water in order to foster transboundary water cooperation in the Ganges river basin. Based on a single-case study, the research work aims to explore the scope of benefit-sharing in the transboundary water cooperation in the Ganges river basin and how benefit-sharing can be facilitated between these two countries. The findings show that the water negotiation in the Ganges basin would become much more complicated in the future, primarily due to the growing gap between the demand and the availability of water. The adverse impact of climate change will further deteriorate the situation. Besides, the changing nature of India’s domestic politics and the growing internal conflict between its provincial states will weaken the Indian central government’s authority to manage transboundary water resources jointly. Therefore, in the future, Bangladesh and India would find it difficult to elicit a positive-sum outcome from any water negotiation in Ganges river if they still focus on the volumetric allocation of water. The study suggests that inland navigation and water transit, multipurpose storage dam projects and joint management of the Sundarbans can be the potential areas for benefit-sharing in the Ganges basin. The study stresses the importance of shifting the policy outlook and developing institutional arrangements between Bangladesh and India to introduce and facilitate benefit-sharing in the Ganges river basin that will help to share benefits equitably, hence foster cooperation.