Referring to the worsening flood situation, Information and Broadcasting Affairs Adviser Md Nahid Islam on Thursday accused India of non-cooperation with Bangladesh and urged the neighbouring country to come out from its what he says “anti-people policy” to protect the people from the two countries.
“The dam was opened without any prior warning and without giving us any scope for preparation,” he told reporters on Thursday after the advisory council’s meeting at state guesthouse Jamuna chaired by Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.
Environment, Forests and Climate Change Adviser for Syeda Rizwana Hasan also spoke and responded to various questions from journalists.
Through this, Nahid claimed, India demonstrated an inhuman behaviour and showed non-cooperation with Bangladesh.
On the other hand, India has noted concerns expressed in Bangladesh regarding the flood situation and explained the reasons behind the flood and claimed that what is said in Bangladesh is not factually correct.
“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct,” said the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday.
Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them, said the Indian side.
At least 1,796,248 people have been affected by floods across six districts in Bangladesh and one death was reported from Fulgazi upazila of Feni district, according to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, which detailed the situation as of Thursday morning (August 22).
Nahid said the people of Bangladesh are angry due to India’s policy and demanded fair share of water which has been a long demand.
Nahid said the government is also discussing the flood situation with the chiefs of three forces - army, navy and air force - for dealing with the flood situation in an effective way.
He urged people from all strata to come forward and help the affected people. “We need to work together.”
Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them, India says.
“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct,” said the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday.
India pointed out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed 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,” MEA said in a statement on the flood situation.
As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of bilateral engagement, India said.
“We remain committed to resolving issues, mutual concerns in water resources, river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” according to MEA.
The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border – over 120 km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura.
Along the about 120 km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2.
Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh.
“In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,” MEA said.
Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real time flood data to Bangladesh.
Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024.
At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems of communication.
“Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data,” said the MEA.
Adviser Nahid urged the businesspeople to come forward on humanitarian grounds to help the affected people.
The interim government has taken “adequate preparation” to face the flood situation in the country as a number of districts are already affected.
“We have adequate preparation,” Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Wednesday.
He said Chattogram, Noakhali and Feni are very affected and some people have already moved to safe shelters.
The press secretary said adequate medicine and dry food are being supplied.
Quoting the weather officials, Alam said the rainfall may continue until August 26 with heavy rainfall and there is no sign for a quick improvement of the rain-driven floods.
Eight districts of the country have been flooded due to heavy rains and onrush of water from the upstream, said the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief on Wednesday.
The eight districts are Sunamganj, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Feni, Chattogram, Noakhali, Cumilla and Khagrachhari.
