Necessity of Regional Co-operation - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 270

It is established that the combined discharge of the inter-connected river basins
of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) have enough water for the countries
through which they flow and to meet their needs by optimal and integrated plan-
ning. Being land-locked and mountainous, Nepal and Bhutan have very little scope
for irrigation except in some pockets but they have it amply for building reservoirs,
generating hydro-power for their own use, or just for sale to India and Bangladesh.
Therefore, a bilateral process is necessary between India and Bangladesh to explore
the possibilities of cooperation on specific projects, involving inter-basin transfer
of water for irrigation, navigation and hydro-power generation etc. However, joint
discussions by India and Bangladesh with Nepal in 1986 on augmentation of the
Ganga water at Farakka did not make much headway, as Nepal insisted on assur-
ance of its benefits before exchange of information about storage facilities in its
own territory. Moreover, floods in three river basins of Bangladesh occur in mon-
soon months, every year. In 1987-1988 and 1998, the floods were unusually severe,
causing huge devastation. The Government of India, the USA, France, Japan and
the UNDP rendered massive help in relief and rescue operations in 1987 and 1988
spates. Therefore, an understanding between India and Bangladesh on the vital issue
of river-basin management is absolutely necessary.
The total water available from the basins of the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the
Meghna is a huge mass, much of which runs into the sea without any use. Only a
miniscule of this prodigious water resource is utilized at present for irrigation, navi-
gation and hydro-power generation etc. by the three countries. Droughts and floods
have been occurring with increasing frequency and intensity all over the eastern and
north-eastern parts of the subcontinent for several decades. The entire surface water
irrigation of non-peninsular India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh depends on the
water of these three river basins, leaving aside the huge ground-water potential of
the region which is also indirectly contributed by the Himalayan rivers.
The annual available discharge of

the three river basins is shown in

Table 14.6 below.
As shown in the above table, the huge water mass, before coming down to the
plains of India and Bangladesh, descends through steep Himalayan slopes in high
falls at several places within Nepal and India. Some World Bank studies show
that the hydro-power potential of the upper Ganga basin is about 13 million kw
(Mkw) at 60% load factor, of which 4 Mkw are within India, 2 Mkw on the borders
between Nepal and India and the rest within Nepal. Nepal's own potential for hydro-
power is 83 Mkw, equivalent to the combined installed capacity of Canada, United
States and Mexico. Nepal's geographical features permit massive hydro-power gen-
eration in three major sub-basins of the Ganga. According to the report of His
Majesty's Government of Nepal, titled 'Hydro-power potentiality in Nepal, 1971',
the Karnali basin generates 32 Mkw, the Gandak basin 21 Mkw and the Kosi basin
22 Mkw. Nepal's undulating land, covered with thick forests and numerous rivers,
rivulets, creeks and Nullas(drains) has very little scope for waterway communica-
tion. Transport and communication through a network of roads and highways, or by
railway, though not impossible, would be very costly as well as highly technical and
time-consuming. Therefore, a viable mode of transport which is a crying need for