Faced with criticism from within Bangladesh over sudden floods allegedly caused by the opening of sluice gates of an Indian dam, India denied the claims, attributing the flooding to incessant rainfall in catchment areas downstream.
Over three million people have been affected and at least eight people have died as floods hit eight districts in Bangladesh. The worst hit districts are Feni, Noakhali and Cumilla, according a number of domestic and foreign media - such as The Wire.
A number of Bangladeshi media reported that the flooding was due to the opening of the sluice gates of the Dumbur dam in Tripura – something that officials claimed was not communicated to them.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) acknowledged the “concerns being expressed in Bangladesh,” to say that the floods were caused by the Dumbur dam’s opening “is not factually correct”, it said in a lengthy statement.
It explained that the catchment areas of the Gumti River, which spans both India and Bangladesh, “have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.”
“The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam,” the statement added.
Incidentally, the Indian high commissioner, Pranay Verma, paid a courtesy call on Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus this afternoon, which was not surprisingly overshadowed by the allegations over the floods..
The Chief Adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters the Indian envoy had informed that the dam gates had automatically opened due to the unprecedented increase in water level following heavy rains.
India’s high commission in Bangladesh posted that Verma “reiterated India’s [commitment] to working with Bangladesh to fulfill [the] shared aspirations of [the] peoples of [India and Bangladesh] for peace, security and development” during his meeting with Yunus.
Water levels and India’s side
The MEA statement pointed out that the Dumbur dam is located 120 kilometres upstream from the Bangladeshi border and stands at a modest height of 30 metres. The dam is used for power generation, with 40 megawatts of electricity supplied to Bangladesh.
India has three water level observation sites along the 120-kilometre stretch of the river from the Dumbur dam to the Bangladeshi border at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2. The Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which India provides real-time flood data to Bangladesh.
“In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,” the MEA statement noted.
India stated that data on rising water levels from Amarpur was shared with Bangladesh until 3 pm on August 21, after which communication was disrupted.
“At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to communication problems. Nevertheless, we have tried to maintain communication through alternative means established for urgent data transmission.”
Tripura’s power minister Ratan Lal Nath had posted on his verified Facebook page at 6.30pm on Wednesday evening that “no gate of the Gumti hydroelectric project has been manually opened”.
“The reservoir’s capacity is up to 94 metres. Once the water level exceeds this limit, the gates will automatically release water. Conversely, if the water level drops below 94 metres, the gates will automatically close. Accordingly, as the water level in the Gomati reservoir has risen above 94 meters, water is being released automatically through two gates. One gate is releasing water at a 50 per cent rate,” he posted in Bengali.
He stated that there was “no reason to … unnecessarily panic about this” and urged the “people of the concerned areas to be alert”.
Forty minutes earlier, the district administration of Gomati district posted on its Facebook page that according to the 5 pm-report from field staff, “Two nos. [numbers] Flap gates fully & one gate partially (50%) (automatically) discharging water from reservoir”.
The MEA emphasised that floods on common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a “shared problem, inflicting suffering on people on both sides, and require close mutual cooperation for resolution”.
“As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” the MEA statement concluded.
