Leaders of the International Farakka Committee (IFC) have urged the Bangladesh government to not sit idle against the untimely flood disaster in Teesta basin.
Expressing a grave concern over the recent flooding, the IFC, in a statement on Saturday, said an untimely flood disaster along the Teesta in Bangladesh has caused extensive damages to the property of lakhs of people along its two banks.
Thousands of dwelling houses and homesteads have been washed away with riverbank erosion. Standing crops on lakhs of acres of land have been damaged while roads and embankments have been eroded snapping road-links among the districts of the greater Rangpur region.
The International Farakka Committee said the disaster has been caused by the discharge of floodwater through the Gajaldoba Barrage floodgates following excessive rainfall along the upper catchment of the Teesta in Sikkim.
Embankments at about 17 places in the upper Teesta were damaged by the floods. But the Bangladesh authorities were not alerted before releasing the water. Only two weeks before, the Teesta in Bangladesh was a dry barren land as all water was diverted from Gajaldoba Barrage in West Bengal, according to the statement.
The Teesta River in Bangladesh is a dead river during the dry season. Despite repeated assurances, no treaty has been signed for the management of the river’s water. People now can walk on foot from one bank of the river to the other, it said.
Only seepage from the Gajaldoba Barrage flows into Bangladesh. During the monsoon, the river causes disastrous floods, the statement pointed out.
According to one account, five waves of flood came down the Teesta in 2021 but a disastrous flood as late as October was never experienced before.
The Farakka Committee said last week’s flood disaster has caused extensive losses to at least 80,000 families, according to a preliminary estimate.
“The damaged properties include ripe paddy, onion, garlic, maize, animal fodder, homesteads, clothes, preserved winter garments, and household crockery and utensils. Bangladesh must do something to bail out three crore people of the Teesta basin from this helpless situation, protect their life and property and maintain its environmental balance. It cannot sit idle in the face of people’s miseries.”
However, leaders of the IFC have extended their support to the government’s initiative to implement the Teesta Master Plan, saying it is a proper and timely move.
“Although this project is no substitute for keeping the river alive by ensuring its natural flow, it’s expected to help reduce the damages caused by floods and help improve a lot of the people of the region through coordinated development activities. The river will get a new life when time will come to restore its natural flow,” it said.
IFC leaders suggested the Teesta Master Plan can be expanded to cover other rivers – Atrai, Korotoa, and Punarbhaba, including Chalan Beel which lie in the old Teesta Basin, to ensure overall socio-economic development of the northwestern region of Bangladesh. This will help recharge groundwater and keep all the tube-wells functional throughout the year.
The signatories to the statement were – Atiqur Rahman Salu, chairman, Sayed Tipu Sultan, secretary general, IFC, New York; Prof Jasim Uddin Ahmad, president, Dr SI Khan, senior vice-president, Syed Irfanul Bari, general secretary of IFC Bangladesh, and Mostafa Kamal Majumder, coordinator of IFC.
