The government is yet to know the reason behind Tuesday’s sudden increase of Teesta water flow on the Teesta River at Dalia point of Teesta Barrage. There will be no need of water after 7 days.
A highly placed source in the government termed the claims of BNP that the rise in flow was preliminary success of its long march towards Teesta ended on Wednesday as well as the claim of a parliamentary standing committee chief that it reflected success of their diplomatic efforts baseless.
“It is true that our diplomatic efforts have continued to get the increase water flow of Teesta River but the claims of both the BNP and chief of parliamentary watchdog were nonsense and baseless. “It did not happen due to any of these,” said the source.The flow of the Teesta River in the Bangladesh side that shot up from 830 to 3,006 cusecs on Tuesday fell 1242 cusecs on the day after and further down to 1186 cusecs on Thursday.
The flow of the Teesta River in Bangladesh part recorded as sustained extremely low flow of 300 to 500 cusecs seriously affecting the agriculture in the Teesta dependent areas including Dimla, Jaldhaka, Nilphamari Sadar, Gangachara and Kishoreganj.
The river flow at down stream of Teesta Barrage has shrunk to an extent due to lack of water causing desertification in vast tract of the areas under Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Dinajpur districts threatening the livelihood of people dependent on the river’s water for irrigation and fishing and destroying the biodiversity.
When contacted Minister for Water Resources Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud said they do not know the actual reason behind the sudden rise of water flow of Teesta River on Thursday.
“We do not know the actual reason behind the sudden increase of water flow on the Teesta. It might be due to rain in the other part of the river. They (India) might released a certain amount of water that they could not retain,” he added.
Mir Sajjad Hossain, member of the Joint River Commission (JRC) Bangladesh, also said that he does not know the actual reason behind the Tuesday’s sudden rise in water level in the Teesta River.
He however said that the sudden rise of water flow on Teesta River might be because of some eventual.
The JRC member further said India has informed Bangladesh that they have started releasing some water in the Teesta River but there is no relation of the corresponding with sudden increase of water flow that reduced on the following day.
Mir Sajjad said he came to know that there had been heavy rains in Sikkim in the upstream in Teesta where it origins on April 19 and India released certain amount of extra water after a heavy rush of the rain water in the river.
“Whatever it was, we need water and signing an agreement with India to ensure the flow on the Teesta River in the downstream,” he added.
Mahbubur Rahman, executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board (maintenance and operation) at Teesta Barrage project also said that they did not find any reason of sudden increase of water flow on Teesta River.
He also said the increase of flow of water might be due to heavy rain in the other part of Teesta.
The BWDB official said, “There was also records of having less amount of water in 2003 and 2009 for a particular day but this time it is a tragedy that we are getting less amount of water continuously.”
He also identified the lack of rains in this season as one of the reasons behind the shortage of water flow in the river.
“There will be any need for water in the Teesta Barrage command area after five to seven days as the harvesting of boro rice will begin ripening soon. The river will also get usual flow after some days,” he said.
Record shows that the flow of water in Teesta river was 1186 cusecs on Thursday while 1242 cusecs on Wednesday, 3006 on Tuesday, 830 cusecs on Monday, 688 cusecs on Sunday and 718 cusecs on Saturday.
According to him, Teesta waters helps cultivate of boro rice in 25,000 hectors of land at Dimla, Jaldhaka, Nilphamari Sadar, Gangachara and Kishoreganj upazilas in Nilphamair, Rangpur and Dinajpur districts.
Teesta Barrage project had taken up in 1979 and became operational in 1989 to help irrigate in the vast areas of land in Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Kurigram and Dinajpur districts. – Staff Reporter
