An eminent water expert at a roundtable conference has warned that about 60 per cent of Bangladesh will turn into desert within the next 30 years due to drastically withdrawal of water from the Teesta river by neighbouring India.
“India has constructed dams in the upstream of common rivers…these are all political dams. India, the country of upper stream, wants to control the land of downstream Bangladesh by building these political dams,” said Engineer Dr S I Khan, senior vice-president of International Farakka Committee, Bangladesh [IFC, B] on Saturday.
Dr Khan was addressing the roundtable conference titled “Moribund Teesta, Bangladesh faces desertization threat: constant failures of the governments to realize righteous sharing of waters from the trans-national rivers”, which was organized by Progressive Engineers and Architects’ Forum at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
Drawing attention to the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, about the water transferring of the common rivers by India, he said, “It’s an aggression against human being. So, we need to go to the UN to get a solution of this problem. There is nothing to be ashamed. We earlier also went to the UN with the issue. India did never inform Bangladesh before constructing any dam on the common rivers.”
“India wants to generate 50,000 MW power from the Teesta water and for this reason they are taking away the water from the river. As its negative impact, the Bangladesh has been facing a loss of Tk 15,000-20,000 crore each and every year. Besides, the trees, fishes, animals, birds and others are also dying for the scarcity of water in the Teesta river,” he said, expressing anxiety over threat of desertization of country’s largest part.
He said, “The water of Teesta is not alone for India. China, Nepal and Bhutan have also share in this water. But India acts like the owner of all the Teesta waters. Although India has got reserved waters about seven times more than its present demand, it is carrying out water aggression against Bangladesh.
Harshly criticizing the Joint River Commission, Dr Khan said that the water dispute with India is as old as the inception of Bangladesh. “It started even before Bangladesh when India’s ill conceived Farakka Barrage on the Ganges was built to divert water fall flushing silt from the Hooghly River,” he added.
He said, “Although Bangladesh has fifty-four trans-boundary rivers with India, there is only water sharing treaty with India on the Ganges river signed on December 12 in 1996. But India removed the guarantee and arbitration clauses in getting minimum water from the treaty.”
In the case of Bangladesh, water insecurity will be the biggest threat or challenge with regard to ensuring its national security as its vulnerabilities come from both internal and external sources, he said.
Pointing finer to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banarjee, he said, “You are the daughter of Bengal. Why are you making Bangladesh a desert?”
According to a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Water Development Board [BWDB], there are 310 rivers in Bangladesh. Of these, 57 are border-rivers, the condition of 175 is miserable and 65 are almost dead. Eighty percent of the rivers lack proper depth.
Besides, the latest study of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority [BIWTA] reveals that 117 rivers are either dead or have lost navigability. Such rivers include the Brahmaputra, Padma, Mohananda, Meghna, Titas, Dhaleswari, Bhairab, Sitalakkhya and Turag.
IFC, Bangladesh Chapter is an associated partner of International Farakka Committee [IFC] Inc, NY, USA. Since 1998, the IFC Bangladesh has been working hand in hand to get righteous water sharing from trans-national water system.
