Twenty-nine years ago today, on December 12, 1996 (November 2, 1996 lunar calendar), India and Bangladesh signed the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty. On December 12, 1996, India and Bangladesh signed the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty in New Delhi. The treaty is valid for 30 years. According to the newly signed treaty, Bangladesh can share an average of 35,000 seconds cubic feet (about 990 seconds cubic meters) of Ganges water per day during the dry season from January 1 to May 31 each year when the flow of Ganges water is above 70,000 seconds cubic feet (about 1980 seconds cubic meters). When the flow of river water is less than 70,000 seconds cubic feet, Bangladesh can share half of the water flow. This historic treaty in bilateral relations was signed by Indian Prime Minister Gundam and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina, who is on a three-day official visit to India. India and Bangladesh signed a water-sharing agreement in 1977. Under the agreement reached at the time, Bangladesh shared 34,500 cubic feet of Ganges water every day during the dry season. However, the agreement was only implemented for five years. On January 1, 1997, the 75 gates of the Faraka Dam in the Indian state of West Bengal were slowly opened, and the rapid flow of Ganges water to neighboring Bangladesh officially came into force, thus declaring that the treaty between Bangladesh and India on the distribution of Ganges water came into force. The Ganges River rises in the southern foothills of the Himalayas and flows through India and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal, with a total length of 2,580 kilometers. On both sides of the Ganges, Indian and Bangladeshi people have collected water for generations to farm, drink water and earn a living. In 1970, India built the Farakha Dam on the upper reaches of the Ganges River near Bangladesh, cutting off the water from the Ganges. Since then, Bangladesh downstream has suffered severe water shortages every year during the dry season. Drought has caused large tracts of Bangladesh's farmland to fail, and water for humans and animals to be severely scarce. The ecological balance has been greatly disrupted. For more than 20 years, the issue of water distribution in the Ganges has been a major obstacle to the development of relations between Bangladesh and India.