Dhaka and Delhi have agreed to share data of water use or withdrawal from six common rivers -- Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar -- as both countries are working on water sharing deal.

Both sides reached an understanding at the two-day virtual technical committee meeting that ended yesterday.

"We have already shared data on the water flow of the six rivers. What we need to know is the amount of water used by the two countries from each of the rivers," said Malik Fida A Khan, a member of the committee and executive director at the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS).

Bangladesh and India began talks on water sharing of the rivers in August 2019 as the two countries failed to sign the Teesta water-sharing agreement due to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's last-minute opposition in 2011.

The two countries have 54 rivers in common but the treaty on water sharing was signed only on two rivers -- the Ganges in 1996 and the Feni River in 2019.

During water secretary-level meeting of the two countries in August 2019, two technical committees -- one on conducting feasibility study on the optimum use of water received under the Ganges treaty and the other on data collection of the six rivers -- were formed.

Malik Fida, a member of the technical committee who was present at the meeting, said once the data on water usage by the two countries is shared, they can develop a water sharing framework agreement.

"India has agreed to do it," he told The Daily Star, but could not confirm when the data will be shared.

Apart from this, Bangladesh also proposed a basin-wide river management. That, however, requires sharing of data on environmental flow of the rivers, joint studies, dredging etc. There was no concrete decision on this matter, he said.

Malik Fida said Bangladesh further said it wanted to withdraw 153 cusec water from the Rahimpur Canal for an irrigation project. About this, India said they would need an opinion from West Bengal.

Bangladesh also proposed a joint study on the optimum use of the Ganges water, he said.

Malik Fida said these issues would be discussed at the secretary and ministerial level meetings before finalisation.