ABSTRACT
India is in the process of embarking on a project to interlink some of the rivers flowing across its territory in a bid to overcome its chronic problem of floods during the Monsoon and draught in the dry season. These rivers include some of the major international rivers of the sub-continent with both upstream and downstream riparian states. The project involves the diversion of water from and into the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers, which draw massive amount of water from their tributaries originating from the upstream Nepal and empty into the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh, the downstream riparian state. Being in the downstream and at the delta of these two mighty international rivers, Bangladesh bears the full brunt of Monsoon floods every year and draught during the dry months. The ongoing operation of the Farakka Barrage in India for the diversion of the Ganges water immediately before its entry into Bangladesh has but added to the problem of too much and too little water in Bangladesh. The Farakka Barrage has been a bone of contention between India and Bangladesh ever since the commission of the barrage in 1975.
