A new Ganges Water Sharing Treaty "will depend on" Bangladesh's relations with India, according to the country's ruling BNP, which on Saturday called for quick negotiations with New Delhi to reach a deal that would meet Dhaka's "expectations and needs".
The 1996 Indo-Bangladesh Ganges Water Sharing Treaty is set to expire in December.At an event here, secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, stated, "We want to send a clear message to the Indian government that a (new Ganges) treaty must be implemented immediately through discussions according to the expectations and needs of Bangladesh's people."

Alamgir, the minister of local government, rural development, and cooperatives, stated that the chance to build positive ties with India "will depend on the signing of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty or the Farakka Agreement".
He claimed that worries about future water-sharing agreements are being raised by the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the current 30-year Ganges water treaty, which was signed during the administration of the now-dissolved Awami League government headed by deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
He recommended that future water-sharing agreements between the two neighbours should not be restricted to a specific tenure and stated that the current deal should be in effect until a new treaty was negotiated.

A major river system in the lower riparian deltaic nation, the Ganges (formerly known as the Padma after entering Bangladesh in the northwest Chapai Nawabganj region) is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, 54 of which originate in or flow through India.
Nearly one-third of Bangladesh's 170 million inhabitants, according to Alamgir, relied on the river system for their livelihoods, biodiversity, and water supply to several distributaries.
The BNP leader's comments were made three days after Bangladesh approved a massive project on Wednesday to construct a barrage on the Padma River, claiming that it will help "negate the negative impact" of the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal, upstream India.By 2033, the project is anticipated to be finished.
The projected Padma Barrage, according to Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee, is "a matter of Bangladesh's own interest and there is no need for any discussion with India on the issue" on Wednesday.After the project was approved by the National Economic Council's Executive Committee at a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, Anee informed reporters that "discussions are necessary regarding the Ganges, and those are ongoing."

Leading water expert Ainun Nishat, who was instrumental in the Ganges Water Treaty's development, cautiously praised the Padma Barrage project, stating that its usefulness will mostly depend on the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty's continuation.
However, a number of other experts warned that by increasing sediment deposits and elevating riverbeds in Bangladesh, the proposed barrage might exacerbate the negative impacts of the Farakka Barrage.
In order to flush sediments and keep Kolkata Port navigable, the 2,240-meter-long Farakka Barrage was constructed to divert water into the Hooghly River.The Farakka issue has long been a contentious topic in Bangladesh, where academics and successive governments have claimed that decreased dry-season water flows downstream led to saline intrusion, river erosion, and detrimental consequences on the lower riparian nation's agriculture and ecosystem.
India has continuously insisted that bilateral systems and agreements, such as the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty between the two nations, have resolved water-sharing difficulties and that the Farakka Barrage was constructed largely to protect the Kolkata port.