Anisur Rahman Khan :
The Bangladesh government has cleared the proposal of setting up an intake well, a critical facility for the water treatment plant in Sabroom division of South Tripura district, to lift 1.62 cusecs of water from the Feni River on the Indo-Bangladesh international border, Indian news agency PTI reports.
However, a senior official of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) of Bangladesh told The New Nation that such proposal is yet to be cleared from Bangladesh side.
“The Indian side has sent a design, and decision will be taken after examining their design. The Water Development Board (WDB) has taken up works under 19 packages to conserve the river banks along the Feni river and the work has been stopped for long time due to India’s non-approval. We won’t allow the Indian proposal until the Bangladesh’s issues are addressed,” Mahmudur Rahman, Member of the JRC told this correspondent.
He, however, said that the ministerial level meeting between Bangladesh and India has not been held in the last 12 years. As a result, many issues are pending for longs in border area’s rivers, he added.
Green activist Abdus Sobhan regretted for not signing the Teesta deal though, as good neighbor, Bangladesh have been always showing its good gesture with India.
“Bangladesh is a lower riparian country and it will face serious environmental hazardous as many industries there are in upper side of India. So, it is needed to test border river water on a regular basis,” Abdus Sobhan, ex-Additional Director General of the Department of Environment told The New Nation.
According to experts, the most significant environmental impact will be the excessive generation of waste from the plants established in Special Economic Zone (SEZ), especially from the rubber-based industries. It will be almost impossible to stop the factories-generated waste entering the Feni river, as despite all kinds of rules and regulation it has not met success anywhere in India and this will have disastrous implications for the riverine biota and communities and river-surrounding environs downstream.
Though the water is being taken in the name of drinking water supply to the town of Sabroom, with the establishment of SEZ here, there will certainly be a sea-change in water use, as more and more water will be required by the industries in SEZ, and again the local populace will face a water crisis in future not so distant.
According to the proposal, Tripura will get 20.32 litres of water per second from Feni River, which has been pending for long years.
“DM also informed that collecting water from the Feni River at Sabroom will need 22 pumps for irrigation and pumps with problems shall be solved while the construction work of the water treatment plant at Anand Para in Sabroom would be resumed,” the report said.
A joint technical committee comprising a 12-member delegation including Chief Engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Chittagong Md. Ramzan Ali Pramanik, and DM of South Tripura district Saju Waheed, SDM of Sabroom sub-division Debdas Debbarma and officials of various departments of Tripura government including Irrigation and Water Resources departments visited the newly identified site of the intake well in Feni River on Tuesday (June 14, 2022) and finalized the site, it reports.
The site is 15 meter from the international border.
“A copy of the design of the intake well was shared with the Bangladesh delegates and it ensured to convey the approval from the competent authority on an urgent basis to begin the water treatment project,” PTI said on Wednesday, however, quoting an official, the PTI said on Wednesday that “Bangladesh government has cleared the proposal of setting up an intake well, a critical facility for the water treatment plant in Sabroom division of South Tripura district.”
The intake well has been given the green signal at a meeting between Bangladesh delegation headed by the chief engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board, Chittagong, Ramjan Ali Pramanik and the Indian delegation led by South Tripura district magistrate Saju Vaheed.
Earlier on February 18, the same delegation of India and Bangladesh inspected the drinking water and irrigation projects along the Feni River. The engineering aspects of the projects were discussed between the representatives of the two countries.
It here be mentioned that the construction of the intake well has been pending since 2012 due to persistent objection from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
“With the latest development, all obstacles for setting up a water treatment plant at Sabroom have been removed. The work will get underway after the permission by the state government and the BSF”, it reads.
“With the latest development, all obstacles for setting up a water treatment plant at Sabroom have been removed. The work will get underway after the permission by the state government and the BSF”, it added.
An official delegation of India and Bangladesh on Tuesday visited a new location for finalizing construction of an intake well to utilize Feni river water for various drinking water and irrigation projects.
Speaking with Northeast Today on Tuesday afternoon, District Magistrate (DM) of South Tripura district Saju Waheed said “A joint technical committee of India and Bangladesh visited the new location for construction of an intake well along the Feni river. The delegation of both the countries finalized the location. The design for the intake well was handed over to Bangladesh officials for approval and once it’s done, the construction work of the intake well will begin.”
“On Bangladesh side, the officials raised the concerns of the pending river bank protection work, which will be allowed to start after getting approval from the Tripura government and BSF,” Tripura Frontier said.
During this meeting and inspection, Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and Border Security Force (BSF) were present with the officials of both sides.
“We both the party discussed the issue in the meeting, we also discussed some pending issues in this regard but we did not give any green signal on any issue,” Nasreen Alam Shathi, Deputy Secretary Water Resources Ministry told this correspondent on Thursday adding that it was a junior level meeting, not related with any policy matter.
The 116 km long river enters Bangladesh at Belchhari of Matiranga upazila of Khagrachhari district. If flows through Ramgarh (Khagrachhari), Fatikchhari (Chittagong) and then flows along the border of Chittagong (Mirsharai upazila) and Feni (Chhagalnaiya, Feni, Sonagazi upazilas) districts and after traversing 108 km, discharges into the Bay of Bengal near Sonagazi.
India and Bangladesh share as many as 54 rivers and there’s only one agreement between them – Farakka Treaty – to share the waters of the Ganga River signed in December 1996.
In August 2019, India and Bangladesh held a water secretary-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) in Dhaka, where it was agreed to collect data and prepare water-sharing agreements for seven rivers – Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, and Feni.
