Ganga water is being shared at Farakka with which one of the following countries?

Correct — C, Bangladesh. The Farakka Barrage stands on the Ganga in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, a short distance upstream of the point where the river crosses into Bangladesh, and it diverts water down the Bhagirathi-Hooghly to flush the Kolkata port. India and Bangladesh signed a treaty on 12 December 1996 fixing how the dry-season flow at Farakka is to be shared between them. Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar are nowhere in this arrangement.

• (a)Nepal — India's water questions with Nepal turn on the Kosi and Gandak agreements and on the Mahakali Treaty, all far upstream of Farakka.
• (b)Bhutan — Bhutan and India cooperate on Himalayan hydropower on the Wangchu and Sankosh; no Ganga water is shared with Bhutan.
• (d)Myanmar — Myanmar shares no river basin with India that involves Farakka. The Ganga does not flow anywhere near Myanmar.

The barrage was commissioned in 1975 to send part of the Ganga's flow into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly through a feeder canal, so that silting would not close the Kolkata port. Because that water is taken above the border, the diversion directly reduces what reaches Bangladesh in the lean months, and the dispute over it ran from 1975 until the treaty of 1996.

The 1996 treaty divides the flow measured at Farakka between 1 January and 31 May in ten-day blocks. When the available flow is 70,000 cusecs or less each side gets half; between 70,000 and 75,000 Bangladesh receives 35,000 and India the balance; above 75,000 India takes 40,000 and Bangladesh the rest. The treaty runs for thirty years from 12 December 1996, so it reaches the end of that term in December 2026 and renewal is the live question now.

• The Farakka Barrage is in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, and was commissioned in 1975.
• The feeder canal to the Bhagirathi-Hooghly was engineered for about 40,000 cusecs.
• The Ganga Waters Treaty was signed on 12 December 1996 by H. D. Deve Gowda and Sheikh Hasina, for thirty years.
• A Joint Committee observes flows at Farakka and at Hardinge Bridge in Bangladesh during the sharing season.

• Placing the barrage in Bihar or Bangladesh; it is in West Bengal, upstream of the border.
• Assuming the treaty shares the whole year's flow — it governs 1 January to 31 May only.

As the country, the state the barrage sits in, the year of the treaty, or the purpose of the feeder canal.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Farakka Barrage was built primarily to

  • (a)generate hydroelectric power for eastern India
  • (b)divert Ganga water into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly to check silting at the Kolkata port
  • (c)irrigate the Sundarbans delta
  • (d)control floods in northern Bihar

  Answer(b) divert Ganga water into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly to check silting at the Kolkata port — the feeder canal, not power, was the point.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The India-Bangladesh Ganga Waters Treaty of 1996 governs sharing during which period of the year?

  • (a)The whole year
  • (b)The monsoon months only
  • (c)1 January to 31 May
  • (d)1 October to 31 December

  Answer(c) 1 January to 31 May — the dry season, divided into ten-day blocks.