India on Tuesday apparently increased the release of the Teesta water into Bangladesh. The flow of the Teesta water into the Bangladesh territory reached 3,000 cusec as of Tuesday afternoon, said executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Mahbubur Rahman.
The water flow of the Teesta dropped a record low of 300 cusec in the current season as India constructed dams on the river in Sikkim and also diverted water by the Gazaldoba barrage through a link to the Upper Mahnanda River. BNP on Tuesday morning launched a long march towards Teesta Barrage to realise due share of all the common rivers, including Teesta.He said if the water flow remains the same, there will be less problem for irrigation during the current season in Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Kurigram districts.
The sudden nearly tenfold increase in the flow of the river just in a day remained unexplained although BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir who is leading his party’s long march to press the demand for equitable share of the river water termed this as initial victory of their movement.
Water Development Board engineers said that the sudden increase in the flow of water to the Bangladesh part of the river might be due to sudden heavy rainfall and increase in the main flow, or deliberate release of water towards Bangladesh by opening sluice gates of the barrage at Gazaldova and those of some dams on the river in the state of Sikkim. There is little sign of there being heavy rainfall on upper catchment areas of the Teesta during the past couple of days.– Staff Reporter
