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Bangladesh
This Week in AsiaPolitics

River dance: why India, Bangladesh should cooperate on water projects like Teesta

  • Choice of India, seen as ‘domestic triumph’ for Bangladesh’s Hasina, can also help resolve long-standing water issues, analysts say

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The Teesta River during its course along Lachen valley, in India’s Sikkim state following a flash flood caused by intense rainfall in October 2023. Photo: Indian Army / AFP
Biman Mukherji
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s preference for India over China this month for a US$1 billion Teesta River project was splashed across Indian media, but observers warn that New Delhi should not celebrate prematurely as Beijing as a major development partner would always be in Dhaka’s orbit.
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“China is ready, but I want India to do the project,” Hasina told reporters in Bangladesh earlier this month.

The Teesta River, opening out to the strategically significant Bay of Bengal, has for long been an important water source for irrigation and hydropower generation in both India and Bangladesh, playing a vital role in the economy and ecology of the region.

Economic rivals China and India, which have been vying for influence over Bangladesh, have both been keen to execute a comprehensive management and restoration plan initiated by Dhaka.

The project to develop the 414km Teesta river basin figured prominently during Hasina’s visit to Delhi in June. The agreement is significant because it can potentially open the way for numerous other rivers that flow from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal, observers say.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina upon their arrival at the Hyderabad house in New Delhi in June. Photo: Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) / AFP
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina upon their arrival at the Hyderabad house in New Delhi in June. Photo: Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) / AFP

“Bangladesh’s preference for India over China for the Teesta project is a strategic choice as this is a bilateral issue over a river that these two countries share,” Sohini Bose, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, told This Week in Asia.

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