New Delhi, July 23 -- When Bangladesh and India signed the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty in December 1996, it was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough. After decades of disputes surrounding the Farakka Barrage, the agreement replaced uncertainty with a rules-based framework for sharing the dry-season flow of the Ganga river.

For nearly thirty years, the treaty has stood as one of South Asia's most successful examples of hydro-diplomacy, demonstrating that even politically sensitive issues can be managed through negotiation rather than confrontation.

Yet as the treaty reaches the end of its thirty-year term in December 2026, simply extending it would ignore the profound environmental and geopolitical changes that have transformed the basin. ...