The High Court (HC) yesterday began hearing on a writ petition seeking directions to the government to take necessary steps to ensure the availability of due share of Ganges water at Farakka point as per the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty between Bangladesh and India. A bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Rezaul Haque will further hear the matter today. Supreme Court lawyers MK Muraduzaman and Faruk Hossain filed the writ as public interest litigation on June 8 stating that Bangladesh has not been receiving its due share of Ganges water at Farakka point as per agreements signed with India. Counsel for the petitioners Advocate Tajul Islam yesterday told the court that due to severe shortage of water some areas of the country are turning into a desert and the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, is going to die. He appealed to the court to issue a rule upon the government to show cause as to why the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty should not be reviewed according to the provisions of Berlin Rules on Water Resources 2004 and the UN Convention on International Water Courses 1997.