1) Farakka Barrage constructed by India, about 18 km upstream near Monohorpur, to save Calcutta Port from silting, but in the process causing widespread and devastating effects, especially in southwestern Bangladesh.
2) India's unilateral withdrawal of the ganges water was not only leading to the destruction of the ecological and environmental system of Bangladesh but also posing a serious threat to sectors such as agriculture, industry, forestry and navigation.
3) The issue of the sharing of Ganges water first came into focus when on 29 October 1951 the government of Pakistan drew the attention of the Indian government to the dangers of their scheme for diverting a large amount of dry season flow from the Ganges to resuscitate the Bhagirathi river in west bengal. India replied in 1952 that the project was only under preliminary investigation and described Pakistan's concern over possible effects as purely hypothetical.
4) After independence in 1971, the government of Bangladesh took up the Ganges issue in earnest with the government of India.
5) The Indo-Bangladesh joint river commission (JRC) was constituted in 1972. The prime ministers of Bangladesh and India, in a joint declaration on 16 May 1974, expressed their determination that before the Farakka project would be commissioned they would arrive at a mutually acceptable allocation of the water available during the periods of minimum flow in the Ganges.
6) It was agreed in 1974 at the summit between Bangladesh and India that the Farakka barrage would not be put into operation before an agreement was reached on sharing the dry season flow of the Ganges between the two countries. Bangladesh, however, allowed India in 1975 to test the feeder canal of the barrage, for which 310-450 cumec of Ganges flow was diverted from Farakka over the 10-day period from 21 April to 31 May 1975.
7) Failing to dissuade India, Bangladesh took the issue to the United Nations. On 26 November 1976 the UN General Assembly adopted a consensus statement which inter alia directed India to sit with Bangladesh urgently to negotiate a fair and expeditious settlement of the problem.
8) Several rounds of discussions followed and on 5 November 1977 the two countries signed an agreement for sharing the dry season flow available at Farakka for a period of 5 years (1978-82).
9) In October 1982 the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for sharing the flow during 1983 and 1984. There was no sharing of Ganges flow in 1985 in the absence of any understanding or agreement.
10) The two countries signed another MOU in November 1985 for sharing the flow for three years from 1986 to 1988. But in the absence of a long-term agreement, Bangladesh was unable to undertake any concrete steps for a meaningful and optimal utilisation of the Ganges water in different sectors of its southwestern region.
11) Since the dry season of 1989 there was no instrument operative for sharing the flow. Consequently, India started to make massive unilateral diversions of the scarce dry season flow of this river, causing a drastic reduction in its flow into Bangladesh. As a result, Bangladesh received only 261 cumec of water at hardinge bridge in March 1993 in place of the 1980 cumec which used to flow through this point in the same month during the pre-Farakka years.
12) During the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries in May 1992, the Indian Prime Minister categorically assured Bangladesh that every possible effort would be made to share the flow of the Ganges on an equitable basis to avoid undue hardships to Bangladesh.
13) Finally in December 1996, a 30-year ganges water sharing Treaty was signed between Indian prime minister Deva Gauda and Bangladesh prime minister sheikh hasina in New Delhi.
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