Dhaka must boldly talk water governance issues with Delhi

PEOPLE in the north who started the process of getting back to their houses having reeled under a prolonged flooding in shelter centres and on high land and embankments have started facing further inundation. In less than a week since floodwater started receding, their houses and cropland became submerged again overnight as India opened three barrages, pushing the river heights up. The sudden onrush of water from the upstream breached embankments in four districts of the Rangpur division, affecting 51,000 people afresh. The Teesta, the Dharla and the Brahmaputra swelled again, breaching the danger mark at some points by more than a metre in the past couple of days. The increase in the river height is temporary, as the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre says, but the swelling of the rivers might continue for a couple of days, with the chance of prolonging the flooding in the north and central areas of Bangladesh. The Water Development Board says that India let 4,200 cusecs of water through the Gazaldoba Barrage, 12,074 cusecs through the barrage upstream on the River Karatoya and 12,704 cusecs through the Deonai Barrage. Towards the end of June, when about 50 villages in the north went under overnight, India opened the gates of the barrages upstream, without any warning.

In the end-of-June flooding, which has prolonged until now, India opened, as the Water Development Board then said, all the 54 gates of the Gazaldoba Barrage amidst a forecast of a heavy rainfall on both sides of the border. India — which is reported in early June to have requested Bangladesh to complete preparations for the signing of the River Feni water sharing agreement, standing back on its earlier commitment of 2015 to sign agreements on the water of both the Teesta and the Feni simultaneously — coming to open gates of the barrages upstream, without any warning every now and then, appears to be a sign of unfriendliness. India is reported to open the gates of the barrages when flooding is likely in Bangladesh but not to release any water when Bangladesh needs the water. India appears to have so far ignored the environmental impact of the withholding of the water of common rivers, especially in Bangladesh’s north, which now faces a gradual desertification. But it releases the water, that too without warning, when Bangladesh’s north stands to be inundated. India is reported to have opened the Gazaldoba Barrage more than six times and other barrages multiple times since June 17, adding to the inundation of vast areas in Bangladesh, so far making more than 23,000 families lose their houses. This is not acceptable.

The government must now step up efforts to mitigate sufferings of the people who are facing double flooding in the north. But in what has followed, Bangladesh must also talk water governance issues boldly with India to stop the flooding of Bangladesh at India’s whims and the desertification of Bangladesh’s north caused by India’s delay in settling water sharing issues of common rivers, not only the Teesta but also the Feni and six others referenced in a joint communiqué issued in 2010.