Water conflicts - Tension between india and bangladesh

1. Tension Between India
and Bangladesh
A2 Geography

2. What’s the problem?
• The River Ganges flows mainly through
India however the last part of it travels
through Bangladesh

3. In Bangladesh the The Problem is
Ganges becomes
the Padma
• This 2500km river is joined by the Jamuna
River the largest tributary of the Brahmaputra
• After this point it changes its name to Meghna
• It eventually flows out into the Bay of Bengal

4. The Main Issues - Farakka Barrage
• 1974 India opened the huge Farakka Barrage 11km from the Bangladesh border
• Further upstream much of the water is diverted to irrigate farms and provide
water for major cities
• Many of the major cities use the rivers to carry waste and industrial sources
• Bangladesh suffer for this
– Deprived of water
– What it gets is often polluted

5. Agreement
• 1990 an agreement was signed about
sharing the waters of the Ganges
• However India have failed to address this
• Worse still India plan on making more use
of the Brahmaputra
• This will put more pressure on
Bangladesh’s supply.

6. Bangladesh’s main problems
• Reduced flow affects irrigation and food
production
• Fish stocks and fish industry declining
• Navigation of water ways have become
harder
• Lower rivers are increasing salinisation
• Delta is eroding because less silt is being
carried by the river thus making it unstable
• Sea water incursion is increasing as the
delta dries out.

7. Your work
• Watch the video entitled
• A Silent War (Water Crisis and Flood)
made by India in Bangladesh
• This can be found on Youtube
• Using the Helsinki rules show how the two
countries fail to meet their obligations and
where are the major conflicts.
• What do you feel will be the outcome of
the problem?

8. References
• www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/SR95.pdf
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYYxCw
k8thU
• http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/indoban
g.htm
• http://www.thefinancialexpress-
bd.com/more.php?date=2011-09-
13&news_id=149248