Water Resources Minister Md Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee has said Bangladesh wants to negotiate a new Ganges Water-Sharing Treaty with India rather than renew the existing agreement.

He said the new agreement should include a guarantee clause while ensuring Bangladesh’s national interests are protected.

The water minister made the remarks at an event on rivers held in the capital on Thursday.

He said rivers are one of the key drivers of Bangladesh’s economy, but they are facing adverse impacts from industrialisation and climate change.

He stressed the need to identify the root causes of river pollution and said the Buriganga River remains a major challenge.

The event was told that around 3,900 million litres of wastewater are generated in Dhaka every day, of which about 1,500 million litres flow into rivers.

As a result, Bangladesh suffers economic losses amounting to billions of dollars every year, according to the speakers at the event.The 1996 Ganges Water-Sharing Treaty is a 30-year bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh signed on December 12, 1996. It governs the sharing of the dry-season (January 1 to May 31) water flows of the Ganges River (known as the Padma in Bangladesh) at the Farakka Barrage.